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FRANCE AND ENGLAND 



NORTH AMERICA. 



A SEEIES OF HISTORICAL NARRATIVES. 



BY 

FRANCIS PARKMAN, 

AUTHOR OF ''HISTOKY OF THE CON8PTKACY OP POKTIAC," 
"the OREGON TRAH.," ETC. 



PART FOURTH. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1892. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1874, by 

FRANCIS PAEKMAN, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TJniveesity Press: 
John "Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 



THE OLD REGIME 



FN 



CANADA. 



BY 



FRANCIS PARKMAIS, 

AUTHOK OF "pioneers OF FRANCE IN THE NEW WORLD.*' " THE 

JESOTTS IN NORTH AMERICA," AND " THE DISCOVKRY 

OP THE GKEAT WBST." 



TWENTY-SIXTH EDITION. 



BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

1892, 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1874, by 

FRANCIS PARKMAN, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



M EXCHANGE 



iylvu^^^^i ^^^T 



JUN 8 5 1915 



/ y 



\'y 



1 



TO 



GEORGE EDWARD ELLIS, D.D. 



My dear Dk. Ellis : 

When, in my youth, I proposed to write a series of books on the 
French in America, you encouraged the attempt, and your helpful 
kindness has followed it from that day to this. Pray accept the dedica- 
tion of this volume in token of the grateful regard of 

Very faithfully yours, 

FRANCIS PARKMAN. 



PEEFACE. 



" The physiognomy of a government/' says De 
Tocqueville, "can best be judged in its colonies, 
for there its characteristic traits usually appear 
larger and more distinct. When I wish to judge 
of the spirit and the faults of the administration 
of Louis XIV., I must go to Canada. Its deform- 
ity is there seen as through a microscope." 

The monarchical administration of France, at 
the height of its power and at the moment of 
its supreme triumph, stretched an arm across the 
Atlantic and grasped the North American conti- 
nent. This volume attempts to show by what 
methods it strove to make good its hold, why it 
achieved a certain kind of success, and why it 
failed at last. The political system which has 
faUen, and the antagonistic system which has pre- 
vailed, seem, at first sight, to offer nothing but 
contrasts; yet out of the tomb of Canadian abso- 
lutism come voices not without suggestion even to 
us. Extremes meet, and Autocracy and Democ- 
racy often touch hands, at least in their vices. 



Vlll PEEFACE. 

The means of knowing the Canada of the past 
are ample. The pen was always busy in this out- 
post of the old monarchy. The king and the min- 
ister demanded to know every thing ; and officials 
of high and low degree, soldiers and civilians, 
friends and foes, poured letters, despatches, and 
memorials, on both sides of every question, into 
the lap of government. These masses of paper 
have in the main survived the perils of revolutions 
and the incendiary torch of the Commune. Add 
to them the voluminous records of the Superior 
Council of Quebec, and numerous other documents 
preserved in the civil and ecclesiastical depositories 
of Canada. 

The governments of New York and of Canada 
have caused a large part of the papers in the 
French archives, relating to their early history, to 
be copied and brought to America, and valuable 
contributions of material from the same quarter 
have been made by the State of Massachusetts and 
by pri^'ate Canadian investigators. Nevertheless, 
a great deal has still remained in France, uncopied 
and unexplored. In the course of several visits to 
that country, I have availed myself of these sup- 
plementary papers, as well as of those which had 
before been copied, sparing neither time nor pains 
to explore every part of the field. With the help 
of a system of classified notes, I have collated the 
evidence of the various writers, and set down 



PREFACE. IX 

without reserve all the results of the examination, 
whether favorable or unfavorable. Some of them 
are of a character which I regret, since they cannot 
be agreeable to persons for whom I have a very 
cordial regard. The conclusions drawn from the 
facts may be matter of opinion, but it will be 
remembered that the facts themselves can be 
overthrown only by overthrowing the evidence 
on which they rest, or bringing forward counter- 
evidence of equal or greater strength ; and neither 
task will be found an easy one.-^ 

I have received most valuable aid in my inqui- 
ries from the great knowledge and experience of 
M. Pierre Margry, Chief of the Archives of the 
Marine and Colonies at Paris. I beg also warmly 
to acknowledge the kind offices of Abbe Henri 
Rajnnond Casgrain and Grand Vicar Cazeau, of 
Quebec, together with those of James LeMoine, 
Esq., M. Eugene Tache, Hon. P. J. 0. Chauveau, 
and other eminent Canadians, and Henry Har- 
risse, Esq. 

The few extracts from original documents, which 
are printed in the appendix, may serve as samples 
of the material out of which the work has been 
constructed. In some instances their testimony 

I Those who wish to see the subject from a point of view opposite to 
mine cannot do better than consult the work of the Jesuit Charlevoix, 
with the excellent annotation of Mr. Shea. (History and General De- 
Bcription of New Trance, by the Rev. P. P. X. de Charlevoix, S.J., trans- 
lated with notes by John Gilmary Shea. 6 vols. New York : 1866- 1872.1 



X li'REFACE. 

might be multiplied twenty-fold. When the place 
of deposit of the documents cited in the margin 
is not otherwise indicated, they wiU, in nearly all 
cases, be found in the Archives of the Marine 
and Colonies. 

In the present book we examine the political 
and social machine ; in the next volume of the 
series we shall see this machine in action. 

Boston, July 1, 1874. 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

THE PERIOD OF TRANSITION. 

CHAPTER I. 

1653-1658. 

the jesuits at onondaga. 

Faok 

The Iroquois War. — Father Poncet. — His Adventures. — Jesuit 
BoWness. — Le Moyne's Mission. — Chaumonot and Dablon. — 

— Iroquois Ferocity. — The Mohawk Kidnappers. — Critical 
Position. — The Colony of Onondaga. — Speech of Cliaumonot. 

— Omens of Destruction. — Device of the Jesuits. — The Medi- 
wie Feast. — The Escape 1 

CHAPTER II. 
1642-1661. 

THE HOLT WAHS OF MONTBEAL. 

Pnuversilre. — Mance and Bourgeoys. — Miracle. — A Pious De- 
faulter. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Montreal in 1659. — The 
Hospital Nuns. — The Nuns and the Iroquois. — More Miracles. . 

— The Murdered Priests. — Brigeac and Closse. — Soldiers of 

the Holy Family • 41 

CHAPTER III. 

1660, 1661. 

THE HEROES OF THE LONG 8AXTT. 

Suffering and Terror. — Fran9ois Hertel. — The Captive Wolf. — 
The threatened Invasion. — Daulac des Ormeaux. — The Ad- 
venturers at the Long Saut. — The Attack. — A Desperate 
Defence. — A Final Assault. — The Fort taken 63 



Xll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 
1657-1668. 

the disputed bishopric. 

Paob 

Domestic Strife. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Abb^ Queylus. — Fran- 
9ois de Laval. — The Zealots of Caen. — Galliean and Ultra- 
montane. — The Rival Claimants. — Storm at Quebec. — Laval 
Triumphant 88 

CHAPTER V. 
1659, 1660. 

LAVAL AND AROENSON. 

Franfois de Laval. — His Position and Character. — Arrival of 
Argenson. — The Quarrel 108 

CHAPTER VL 
1658-1663. 

LAVAL AND AVAUGOTJB. 

Reception of Argenson. — His Difficulties. — His Recall. — Dubois 
d'Avaugour. — The Brandy Quarrel. — Distress of Laval. — 
Portents. — The Earthquake IIB 

CHAPTER VIL 
1661-1664. 

LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. 

P6ronne Dumesnil. — The Old Council. — Alleged Murder. — The 
New Council. — Bourdon and Villeray. — Strong Measures. — 
Escape of Dumesnil. — Views of Colbert 181 

CHAPTER VIII. 

1657-1665. ■ 

LAVAL AND M^ZT. 

The Bishop's Choice. — A Military Zealot. — Hopeful Beginnings. 
— Signs of Storm. — Tlie Quarrel. — Distress of Mezy. — He 
Refuses to Yield. — His Defeat and Death ........ 145 



CONTENTS. Xm 

CHAPTER IX. 

1662-1680. 

laval and the seminary. 

Pagh 

liaval's Visit to Court. — The Seminary. — Zeal of the Bishop. 
— His Eulogists. — Church and State. — Attitude of Laval . . 159 



n. 

THE COLONY AND THE KING. 

CHAPTER X. 
1661-1665. 

EOTAL INTERVENTION. 

Fontainebleau. — Louis XIV. — Colbert. — The Company of the 
West. — Evil Omens. — Action of the King. — Tracy, Courcelle, 
and Talon. — The Regiment of Carignan-Salieres. — Tracy at 
Quebec. — Miracles. — A Holy War 16y 

CHAPTER XL 

1666, 1667. 

THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. 

Courcelle's March. — His Failure and Return. — Courcelle and the 
Jesuits. — Mohawk Treachery. — Tracy's Expedition. — Burning 
of the Mohawk Towns. — French and English. — DoUier de Cas- 
soE at St. Anne. — Peace. — The Jesuits and the Iroquois . . 186 

CHAPTER XIL 

1665-1672. 

PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. 

Talon . — Restriction and Monopoly. — Views of Colbert. — Political 
Galvanism. — A Father of the People . .( 207 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER Xin. 

1661-1673. 

marriage and population. 

Fags 

Shipment of Emigrants. — Soldier Settlers. — Importation of 
Wives. — Wedlock. — Summary Methods. — The Mothers of 
Canada. — Bounties on Marriage. — Celibacy Punished. — Boim- 
ties on Children. — Results . 21S 

CHAPTER XIV. 

1665-1672. 

THE NEW HOME. 

Military Frontier. — The Canadian Settler. — Seignior and Vassal. 
— Example of Talon. — Plan of Settlement. — Aspect of 
Canada. — Quebec. — The River Settlements. — Montreal. — 
The Pioneers 281 

CHAPTER XV. 

1663-1763. 

CANADIAN FEUDALISM. 

Transplantation of Feudalism. — Precautions. — Faith and Homage. 
^ — The Seignior. — The Censitaire. — Royal Intervention. — The 

Gentilhomnie. — Canadian Noblesse 21S 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1663-1763. 

THE RULteRS OF CANADA. 

Nature of the Government. — The Governor. — The Council. — 
Courts and Judges. — The Intendant. — His Grievances. — Strong 
Government. — Sedition and Blasphemy. — Royal Bounty. — 
Defects and Abuses 264 



CONTENTS XV 

CHAPTER XVn. 

1663-1763. 

trade and industry. 

Pagh 
f rade in Fetters. — The Huguenot Mercliants. — Royal Patronage. 

— The Fisheries. — Cries for Help. — Agriculture. — Manufact- 
ures. — Arts of Ornament. — Finance. — Card Money. — Repudi- 
ation. — Imposts. — The Bea:ver Trade. — The Fair at Montreal; 

— Contraband Trade. — A Fatal System. — Trouble and 
Change. — The Coureurs de Bois. - The Forest. — Letter of 
Carheil 283 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
1663-1702. 

THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDT QUESTION. 

The Jesuits and the Iroquois. — Mission Villages. — Michillimack- 
inac. — Father Carheil. — Temperance. — Brandy and the 
Indians. — Strong Measures. — Disputes. — License and Pro- 
hibition. — Views of the liing. — Trade and the Jesuits . . . 81 ft 

CHAPTER XIX. 

1668-1768. 

PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 

"Jhurch and State. — The Bishop and the King. — The King ana 
the Cure's. — The New Bishop. — The Canadian Cure. — Ecclesi- 
astical Rule. — Saint- Vallier and Denonville. — Clerical Rigor. 
— Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Courcelle and Chatelain. — The Re- 
collets. — Heresy and Witchcraft. — Canadian Nuns. — Jeanne 
Le Ber. — Education. — The Seminary. — Saint Joachim. — 
Miracles of Saint Anne. — Canadian Schools 83! 

CHAPTER XX. 

1640-1763. 

MORALS AND MANNERS 

Social Influence of the Troops. — A Petty Tyrant. — Brawls.— 
Violence and Outlawry. — State of the Population. — Views of 
Denonville. — Brandy. — Beggary. — The Past and the Present. 

— Inns. — State of Quebec. — Fires. — The Country Parishes. 

— Slavery. — Views of La Hontan. — Of Hocquart. — Of 
Bougainville — Of Kalm. — Of Charlevoix 868 



XVI C0NTEJ!<1». 

CHAPTER XXI. 

1663-1763. 

canadian absolutism. 

Paob 
Formation of Canadian Character. — The RiTal Colonies. — Eng- 
land and France. — New England. — Characteristics of Race. — 
Military Qualities. — The Church. — The English Conquest . . 894 

APPENDIX. 

A. The Hermitage of Caen 403 

B. Laval and Argenson 407 

C. Peronne Dumesnil 409 

1). Laval and Me'sy 413 

E. Marriage and Population 416 

F. Chateau St. Louis 419 

G. Trade and Industry 422 

H. Letter of Father Carheil 427 

I. The Government and the Clergy 432 

J. Canadian Cures. Education. Discipline 438 

INDEX 441 



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I. 

THE PEKIOD OF TKANSITIOH. 



CHAPTER I. 

1653-1658. 

THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. 

The Iboqttois War. — Father Poncet. — His Adventures. — 
Jestjit Boldness. — Le Moyne's Mission. — Chatjmonot and 
Dablon. — Iroquois Fekocitt. — The Mohawk Kidnappers. — 
Critical Position. — The Colony of Onondaga. — Speech oh 
Chaumonot. — Omens of Destruction. — Device of the Jes- 
uits. — The Medicine Feast. — The Escape. 

In" the summer of 1653, all Canada turned to 
fasting and penance, processions, vows, and suppli- 
cations. The saints and the Virgin were beset with 
unceasing prayer. The wretched little colony was 
like some puny garrison, starving and sick, com- 
passed with inveterate foes, suppUes cut off, and 
succor hopeless. 

At Montreal, the advance guard of the settle- 
ments, a sort of Castle Dangerous, held by about 
fifty Frenchmen, and said by a pious writer of the 
day to exist only by a continuous miracle, some 
two hundred Iroquois fell upon twenty-six French- 
men. The Christians were outmatched, eight to 
one ; but, says the chronicle, the Queen of Heaven 



2 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [165S 

was on their side, and the Son of Mary refuses 
notliing to his holy mother.^ Through her inter- 
cession, the Iroquois shot so wildly that at their 
first fire every bullet missed its mark, and they 
met with a bloody defeat. The pahsaded settle- 
ment of Three Rivers, though in a position less 
exposed than that of Montreal, was in no less 
jeopardy. A noted war-chief of the Mohawk Iro- 
quois had been captured here the year before, and 
put to death ; and his tribe swarmed out, like a 
nest of angry hornets, to revenge him. Not con- 
tent with defeating and killing the commandant, 
Du Plessis Bochart, they encamped during mnter 
in the neighboring forest, watching for an oppor- 
tunity to surprise the place. Hunger drove them 
off, but they returned in spring, infesting every 
field and pathway ; till, at length, some six hundred 
of their warriors landed in secret and lay hidden in 
the depths of the woods, silently biding their time. 
Having failed, however, in an artifice designed to 
lure the French out of their defences, they showed 
themselves on all sides, plundering, burning, and 
destroying, up to the palisades of the fort.^ 

Of the three settlements which, with their feeble 
dependencies, then comprised the whole of Canada, 
Quebec was least exposed to Indian attacks, being 
partially covered by Montreal and Three Eivers. 
Nevertheless, there was no safety this year, even 



1 Le Mercier, Relation, 1653, 3. 

2 So bent were they on taking the place, that they brought their 
families, in order to make a permanent settlement. — Marie de I'lncarna- 
tion, Lcttre du 6 Sept., 1653. 



1653.] PACIFIC OVERTURES. 3 

under the cannon of Fort St. Louis. At Cap 
Rouge, a few miles above, the Jesuit Poncet saw 
a poor woman who had a patch of corn beside her 
cabin, but could find nobody to harvest it. The 
father went to seek aid, met one Mathurin 
Franchetot, whom he persuaded to undertake the 
charitable task, and was returning with him, when 
they both fell into an ambuscade of Iroquois, who 
seized them and dragged them off. Thirty-two 
men embarked in canoes at Quebuc to follow the 
retreating savages and rescue the prisoners. Push- 
ing rapidly up the St. Lawrence, they approached 
Three Rivers, found it beset by the Mohawks, 
and bravely threw themselves into it, to the great 
joy of its defenders and discouragement of the 
assailants. 

Meanwhile, the intercession of the Virgin wrought 
new marvels at Montreal, and a bright ray of hope 
beamed forth from the darkness and the storm to 
cheer the hearts of her votaries. It was on the 
26 th of June that sixty of the Onondaga Iroquois 
appeared in sight of the fort, shouting from a dis- 
tance that they came on an errand of peace, and 
asking safe-conduct for some of their number. 
Guns, scalping-knives, tomahawks, were all laid 
aside ; and, with a confidence truly astonishing, a 
deputation of chiefs, naked and defenceless, came 
into the midst of those whom they had betrayed 
so often. The French had a mind to seize them, 
and pay them in kind for past treachery ; but they 
refrained, seeing in this wondrous change of heart 
the manifest hand of Heaven. Nevertheless, it can 



4 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1053 

be explained without a miracle. The Iroquois, or, 
at least, the western nations of their league, had 
just become involved in war with their neighbors 
the Eries,^ and " one war at a time " was the sage 
maxim of their policy. 

All was smiles and blandishment in the fort at 
Montreal ; presents were exchanged, and the depu- 
ties departed, bearing home golden reports of the 
French. An Oneida deputation soon followed ; but 
the enraged Mohawks still infested Montreal and 
beleaguered Three Eivers, till one of their prin- 
cipal chiefs and four of their best warriors were 
captured by a party of Christian Hurons. Then, 
seeing themselves abandoned by the other nations 
of the league and left to wage the war alone, they, 
too, made overtures of peace. 

A grand council was held at Quebec. Speeches 
were made, and wampum-belts exchanged. The 
Iroquois left some of their chief men as pledges of 
sincerity, and two young soldiers offered them- 
selves as reciprocal pledges on the part of the 
French. The war was over ; at least Canada had 
found a moment to take breath for the next 
struggle. The fur trade was restored again, with 
promise of plenty ; for the beaver, profiting by the 
quarrels of their human foes, had of late greatly 
multiplied. It was a change from death to life ; 
for Canada lived on the beaver, and, robbed of this, 



1 See Jesuits in North America, 438. The Iroquois, it will be remem- 
bered, consisted of five " nations," or tribes, — the Mohawks, Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. For an account of them, see the 
work just cited, Introduction. 



1653.| CELESTIAL INTERVENTION. 5 

her only sustenance, had been dying slowly since 
the strife began.^ 

" Yesterday," writes Father Le Mercier, " all was 
dejection and gloom ; to-day, all is smiles and 
gayety. On Wednesday, massacre, burning, and 
pillage; on Thursday, gifts and visits, as among 
friends. If the Iroquois have their hidden designs, 
so, too, has God. 

" On the day of the Visitation of the Holy 
Virgin, the chief, Aontarisati,^ so regretted by the 
Iroquois, was taken prisoner by our Indians, in- 
structed by our fathers, and baptized ; and, on the 
same day, being put to death, he ascended to 
heaven- I doubt not that he thanked the Virgin 
for his misfortune and the blessing that followed, 
and that he prayed to God for his countrymen. 

" The people of Montreal made a solemn vow to 
celebrate publicly the fete of this mother of all 
blessings ; whereupon the Iroquois came to ask for 
peace. 

" It was on the day of the Assumption of this 
Queen of angels and of men that the Hurons took 
at Montreal that other famous Iroquois chief, whose 
capture caused the Mohawks to seek our alliance. 

" On the day when the Church honors the Nativity 
of the Holy Virgin, the Iroquois granted Father 



1 According to Le Mercier, beaver to the value of from 200,000 to 
300,000 livres was yearly brought down to the colony before the destruc- 
tion of the Hurons (1649-50). Three years later, not one beaver skin 
was brought to Montreal during a twelvemonth, and Three Rivers and 
Quebec had barely enough to pay for keeping the fortifications in 
repair. 

2 Tlie chief whose death had so enraged the Mohawks. 



fc' THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1655 

Ponce t his life ; and he, or rather the Holy Yirgir. 
and the holy angels, labored so well in the work of 
peace, that on St. Michael's Day it was resolved in 
a council of the elders that the father should be 
conducted to Quebec, and a lasting treaty made 
with the French." ^ 

Happy as was this consummation, Father Ponce t's 
path to it had been a thorny one. He has left us 
his own rueful story, written in obedience to the 
command of his superior. He and his companion 
in misery had been hurried through the forests, 
from Cap Rouge on the St. Lawrence to the Indian 
towns on the Mohawk. He tells us how he slept 
among dank weeds, dropping with the cold dew ; 
how frightful cohcs assailed him as he waded waist- 
deep through a mountain stream ; how one of his 
feet was blistered and one of his legs benumbed ; 
how an Indian snatched away his reliquary and lost 
the precious contents. " I had," he says, " a picture 
of Saint Ignatius with our Lord bearing the cross, 
and another of Our Lady of Pity surrounded by the 
five wounds of her Son. They were my joy and 
my consolation ; but I hid them in a bush, lest the 
Indians should laugh at them." He kept, however, 
a little image of the crown of thorns, in which he 
found great comfort, as well as in communion with 
his patron saints. Saint Raphael, Saint Martha, and 
Saint Joseph. On one occasion he asked these celes- 
tial friends for something to soothe his thirst, and 
for a bowl of broth to revive his strength. Scarcely 
had he framed the petition when an Indian gave 

1 Relation, 1653, 18. 



1853., THE WOES OF FATHER PONCET. ^ 

him some wild plums ; and in the evening, as he lay 
fainting on the ground, another brought him the 
coveted broth. Wearv and forlorn, he reached at 
last the lower Mohawk town, where, after being 
stripped, and, with his companion, forced to run 
the gauntlet, he was placed on a scaffold of bark, 
surrounded by a crowd of grinning and mocking 
savages. As it began to rain, they took him into 
one of their lodges, and amused themselves by 
maldng him dance, sing, and perform various fan- 
tastic tricks for their amusement. He seems to 
have done his best to please them; "but," adds 
the chronicler, " I will say in passing, that as he 
did not succeed to their liking in these buffooneries 
(singeries), they woidd have put him to death, if a 
young Huron prisoner had not offered himself to 
sing, dance, and make wry faces in place of the 
father, who had never learned the trade." 

Having suflQ.ciently amused themselves, they left 
him for a time in peace ; when an old one-eyed 
Indian approached, took his hands, examined them, 
selected the left forefinger, and calling a child four 
or five years old, gave him a knife, and told him 
to cut it off, which the imp proceeded to do, his 
victim meanwhile singing the Vexilla Regis. After 
this preliminary, they would have burned him, like 
Franchetot, his unfortunate companion, had not a 
squaw happily adopted him in place, as he says, of 
a deceased brother. He was installed at once in 
the lodge of his new relatives, where, bereft of 
every rag of Christian clothing, and attired in leg- 
gins, moccasins, and a greasy shirt, the astom'shed 



8 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1658 

father saw himself transformed into an Iroquois. 
But his deliverance was at hand. A special agree- 
ment providing for it had formed a part of the treaty 
(concluded at Quebec ; and he now learned that he 
was to be restored to his countrjrmen. After a 
march of almost intolerable hardship, he saw him- 
self once more among Christians; Heaven, as he 
modestly thinks, having found him unworthy of 
martyrdom. 

" At last," he MTites, " we reached Montreal on 
the 21st of October, thfe nine weeks of my captivity 
being accomplished, in honor of Saint Michael and 
all the holy angels. On the 6th of November the 
Iroquois who conducted me made their presents to 
confirm the peace ; and thus, on a Sunday evening, 
eighty-and-one days after my capture, — that is to 
say, nine times nine days, — this great business of 
the peace was happily concluded, the holy angels 
s] lowing by this number nine, which is specially 
dedicated to them, the part they bore in this holy 
work."-^ This incessant supernaturalism is the key 
to the early history of New France. 

Peace was made ; but would peace endure ? 
There was little chance of it, and this for several 
reasons. First, the native fickleness of the Iro- 
quois, who, astute and politic to a surprising degree, 
were in certain respects, like all savages, mere 
grown-up children. Next, their total want of con- 
trol over their fierce and capricious young warriors, 
any one of whom could break the peace with un- 

1 Poncet in Relation, 1653, 17. On Poncet's captivity see also Morala 
Pratique Jes J^suites, vol. xxxiv. (4to) chap. xii. 



1658.1 IROQUOIS DESIGNS. 9 

punity whenever he saw fit; and, above all, the 
strong probability that the Iroquois had made 
peace in order, under cover of it, to butcher or 
kidnap the unhappy remnant of the Hurons who 
were living, under French protection, on the island 
of Orleans, immediately below Quebec. I have 
already told the story of the destruction of this 
people and of the Jesuit missions estabUshed among 
them.^ The conquerors were eager to complete 
their bloody triumph by seizing upon the refugees 
of Orleans, kilhng the elders, and strengthening 
their own tribes by the adoption of the women, 
children, and youths. The Mohawks and the 
Onondagas were competitors for the prize. Each 
coveted the Huron colony, and each was jealous 
lest his rival should pounce upon it first. 

When the Mohawks brought home Poncet, they 
covertly gave wampum-belts to the Huron chiefs, 
and invited them to remove to their villages. It 
was the wolf's invitation to the lamb. The Hurons, 
aghast with terror, went secretly to the Jesuits, 
and told them that demons had whispered in their 
ears an invitation to destruction. So helpless were 
both the Hurons and their French supporters, that 
they saw no recourse but dissimulation. The 
Hurons promised to go, and only sought excuses 
to gain time. 

The Onondagas had a deeper plan. Their towns 
were already fuU of Huron captives, former con- 
verts of the Jesuits, cherishing their memory and 
constantly repeating their praises. Hence their 

1 Jesuits in North America, 



iO THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. 11654 

tyrants conceived the idea that by planting at 
Onondaga a colony of Frenchmen under the direc- 
tion of these beloved fathers, the Hurons of Orleans, 
disarmed of suspicion, might readily be led to join 
them. Other motives, as we shall see, tended to 
the same end, and the Onondaga deputies begged, 
or rather demanded, that a colony of Frenchmen 
should be sent among them. 

Here was a dilemma. Was not this, hke the 
Mohawk invitation to the Hurons, an invitation to 
butchery? On the other hand, to refuse would 
probably kindle the war afresh. The Jesuits had 
long nursed a project bold to temerity. Their 
great Huron mission was ruined; but might not 
another be built up among the authors of this ruin, 
and the Iroquois themselves, tamed by the power 
of the Faith, be annexed to the kingdoms of Heaven 
and of France ? Thus would peace be restored to 
Canada, a barrier of fire opposed to the Dutch and 
English heretics, and the power of the Jesuits 
vastly increased. Yet the time was hardly ripe 
for such an attempt. Before thrusting a head into 
the tiger's jaws, it would be well to try the effect 
of thrusting in a hand. They resolved to compro- 
mise with the danger, and before risking a colony 
at Onondaga to send thither an envoy who could 
soothe the Indians, confirm them in pacific designs, 
and pave the way for more decisive steps. The 
choice feU on Father Simon Le Moyne. 

The errand was mainly a political one ; and this 
sagacious and able priest, versed in Indian lan- 
guages and customs, was well suited to do it. 



i654.] FATHER LE MOYNE. IJ 

" On the second day of the month of July, the fes- 
tival of the Visitation of the Most Holy Virgin, 
ever favorable to our enterprises, Father Simon 
Le Moyne set out from Quebec for the country 
of the Onondaga Iroquois." In these words does 
Father Le Mercier chronicle the departure of his 
brother Jesuit. Scarcely was he gone when a band 
of Mohawks, under a redoubtable half-breed known 
as the Flemish Bastard, arrived at Quebec; and, 
when they heard that the envoy was to go to the 
Onondagas without visiting their tribe, they took 
the imagined slight in high dudgeon, displaying 
such jealousy and ire that a letter was sent after 
Le Moyne, directing him to proceed to the Mohawk 
towns before his return. But he was already be- 
yond reach, and the angry Mohawks were left to 
digest their wrath. 

At Montreal, Le Moyne took a canoe, a young 
IVenchman, and two or three Indians, and began 
the tumultuous journey of the Upper St. Lawrence. 
Nature, or habit, had taught him to love the wil- 
derness life. He and his companions had strug- 
gled all day against the surges of La Chine, and 
were bivouacked at evening by the Lake of St. 
Louis, when a cloud of mosquitoes fell upon them, 
followed by a shower of warm rain. The father, 
stretched under a tree, seems clearly to have en- 
joyed himself. " It is a pleasure," he writes, " the 
sweetest and most innocent imaginable, to have 
no other shelter than trees planted by Nature since 
the creation of the world." Sometimes, during 
their journey, this primitive tent proved insuf* 



12 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [:«664. 

ficient, and they would build a bark hut or find a 
partial shelter under their inverted canoe. Now 
they ghded smoothly over the sunny bosom of the 
calm and smiling river, and now strained every 
nerve to fight their slow way against the rapids, 
dragging their canoe upward in the shallow water 
by the shore, as one leads an unwilling horse by 
the bridle, or shouldering it and bearing it through 
the forest to the smoother current above. Game 
abounded ; and they saw great herds of elk quietly 
defiling between the water and the woods, with 
little heed of men, who in that perilous region 
found employment enough in hunting one another. 
At the entrance of Lake Ontario they met a 
party of Iroquois fishermen, who proved friendly, 
and guided them on their way. Ascending the 
Onondaga, they neared their destination ; and now 
all misgivings as to their reception at the Iroquois 
capital were dispelled. The inhabitants came to 
meet them, bringing roasting ears of the young 
maize and bread made of its pulp, than which they 
knew no luxury more exquisite. Their faces 
beamed welcome. Le Moyne was astonished. " I 
never/' he says, " saw the hke among Indians be- 
fore." They were flattered by his visit, and, for 
the moment, were glad to see him. They hoped 
for great advantages from the residence of French- 
men among them; and, having the Erie war on 
their hands, they wished for peace with Canada. 
" One would caU me brother," writes Le Moyne ; 
" another, uncle ; another, cousin. I never had 
60 many relations." 



1654. J LE MOYNE AT ONONDAGA. 18 

He was overjoyed to find that many of the 
Huron converts, who had long been captives at 
Onondaga, had not forgotten the teachings of their 
Jesuit instructors. Such influence as they had 
with their conquerors was sure to be exerted in 
behalf of the French. Deputies of the Senecas, 
Cayugas, and Oneidas at length arrived, and, on 
the 10th of August, the criers passed through the 
to^vn, summoning all to hear the words of Onontio , 
The naked dignitaries, sitting, squatting, or lying 
at full length, thronged the smoky hall of council 
The father knelt and prayed in a loud voice, in- 
voking the aid of Heaven, cursing the demons who 
are spirits of discord, and calling on the tutelar 
angels of the country to open the ears of his Hs- 
teners. Then he opened his packet of presents 
and began his speech. "I was full two hours," 
he says, "in making it, speaking in the tone of 
a chief, and walking to and fro, after their fashion, 
Hke an actor on a theatre." Not only did he im- 
itate the prolonged accents of the Iroquois orators, 
but he adopted and improved their figures of 
speech, and addressed them in turn by their re 
spective tribes, bands, and famihes, calling their 
men of note by name, as if he had been born among 
them. They were delighted; and their ejacula- 
tions of approval — hoh-hoh-hoh — came thick and 
fast at every pause of his harangue. Especially 
were they pleased with the eighth, ninth, tenth, 
and eleventh presents, whereby the reverend 
speaker gave to the four upper nations of the 
league four hatchets to strike their new enemies, 



14 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1654 

the Eries ; while by another present he metaphor- 
ically daubed their faces with the war-paint. How- 
ever it may have suited the character of a Christian 
priest to hound on these savage hordes to a war 
of extermination which they had themselves pro- 
voked, it is certain that, as a politician, Le Moyne 
did wisely ; since in the war with the Eries lay the 
best hope of peace for the French. 

The reply of the Indian orator was friendly to 
overflowing. He prayed his French brethren to 
choose a spot on the lake of Onondaga, where they 
might dwell in the country of the Iroquois, as they 
dwelt already in their hearts. Le Moyne promised, 
and made two presents to confirm the pledge. 
Then, his mission fulfilled, he set out on his return, 
attended by a troop of Indians. As he approached 
the lake, his escort showed him a large spring of 
water, possessed, as they told him, by a bad spirit. 
Le Moyne tasted it, then boiled a little of it, and 
produced a quantity of excellent salt. He had 
discovered the famous salt-springs of Onondaga. 
Fishing and hunting, the party pursued their way 
tin, at noon of the 7th of September, Le Moyne 
reached Montreal.-^ 

When he reached Quebec, his tidings cheered for 
a while the anxious hearts of its tenants ; but an 
unwonted incident soon told them how hollow was 
the ground beneath their feet. Le Moyne, accom- 
panied by two Onondagas and several Hurons and 
Algonquins, was returning to Montreal, when he 
and his companions were set upon by a war-party 

1 Journal du Fere Le Moine, Relation, 1654, chaps, vi. vii. 



1654-55.1 MOHAWK OUTKAGES. 15 

of MohaAvks. The Hiirons and Algonqiiins were 
killed. One of the Onondagas shared their fate, 
and the other, with Le Moyne himself, was seized 
and bound fast. The captive Onondaga, however, 
was so loud in his threats and denunciations, that 
the Mohawks released both him and the Jesuit.^ 
Here was a foreshadowing of civil war, Mohawk 
against Onondaga, Iroquois against Iroquois. The 
quarrel was patched up, but fresh provocations 
were imminent. 

The Mohawks took no part in the Erie war, and 
hence their hands were free to fight the French 
and the tribes allied with them. Eeckless of their 
promises, they began a series of butcheries, feU 
upon the French at Isle aux Oies, killed a lay 
brother of the Jesuits at Sillery, and attacked Mont- 
real. Here, being roughly handled, they came 
for a time to their senses, and offered terms, prom- 
ising to spare the French, but declaring that they 
would still wage war against the Hurons and Al- 
gonquins. These were allies whom the French 
were pledged to protect; but so helpless was the 
colony, that the insolent and humiliating proffer 
was accepted, and another peace ensued, as hollow 
as the last. The indefatigable Le Moyne was sent 
to the Mohawk towns to confirm it, " so far," says 
the chronicle, " as it is possible to confirm a peace 
made by infidels backed by heretics." ^ The Mo- 
hawks received him with great rejoicing ; yet his 

1 Compare Relation, 1654, 33, and Lettre de Marie de I'lncarnation, 18 
Octobre, 1654. 

2 Copie de Deux Lettres envoyies de la Nouvdle France au Pere Procurew 
ies Missions de la Compagme de J^stts, 



16 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [If555. 

life was not safe for a moment. A warrior, feign- 
ing madness, raved through the town with uplifted 
hatchet, howling for his blood; but the saints 
watched over him and balked the machinations of 
hell. He came off alive and returned to Montreal, 
spent with famine and fatigue. 

Meanwhile a deputation of eighteen Onondaga 
chiefs arrived at Quebec. There was a grand 
council. The Onondagas demanded a colony of 
Frenchmen to dwell among them. Lauson, the 
governor, dared neither to consent nor to refuse. 
A middle course was chosen, and two Jesuits, Chau- 
monot and Dablon, were sent, Hke Le Moyne, partly 
to gain time, partly to reconnoitre, and partly t6 
confirm the Onondagas in such good intentions as 
they might entertain. Chaumonot was a veteran 
of the Huron mission, who, miraculously as he him- 
self supposed, had acquired a great fluency in the 
Huron tongue, which is closely allied to that of the 
Iroquois. Dablon, a new-comer, spoke, as yet, no 
Indian. 

Their voyage up the St. Lawrence was enlivened 
by an extraordinary bear-hunt, and by the antics 
of one of their Indian attendants, who, having 
dreamed that he had swallowed a frog, roused the 
whole camp by the gymnastics with which he tried 
to rid himseK of the intruder. On approaching 
Onondaga, they were met by a chief who sang a 
song of welcome, a part of which he seasoned with 
touches of humor, apostrophizing the fish in the 
river Onondaga, naming each sort, great or small, 
and calling on them in turn to come into the nets 



1665 I CHAUMONOT'S ELOQUENCE. 17 

of the Frenchmen and sacrifice life cheerfully for 
their behoof. Hereupon there was much laughter 
among the Indian auditors. An unwonted cleanli- 
ness reigned in the town ; the streets had been 
cleared of refuse,' and the arched roofs of the long 
houses of bark were covered with red-skinned chil- 
dren staring at the entry of the "black robes." 
Crowds followed behind, and all was jubilation. 
The dignitaries of the tribe met them on the way, 
and greeted them with a speech of welcome. A 
least of bear's meat awaited them; but, unhap- 
pily, it was Friday, and the fathers were forced 
to abstain. 

" On Monday, the 15th of November, at nine in 
the morning, after having secretly sent to Paradise 
a dying infant by the waters of baptism, all the 
elders and the people having assembled, we opened 
the council by public prayer." Thus writes Father 
Dablon. His colleague, Chaumonot, a Frenchman 
bred in Italy, now rose, with a long belt of wam- 
pum in his hand, and proceeded to make so effec- 
tive a display of his rhetorical gifts that the Indians 
were lost in admiration, and their orators put to 
the blush by his improvements on their own meta- 
phors. " If he had spoken all day," said the de 
lighted auditors, " we should not have had enough 
of it." " The Dutch," added others, " have neither 
brains nor tongues ; they never tell us about Para- 
dise and HeU ; on the contrary, they lead us into 
bad ways." 

On the next day the chiefs returned their an- 
swer. The council opened with a song or chant, 

2 



18 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1665 

which was divided into six parts, and which, ac- 
cording to Dablon, was exceedingly well sung. 
The burden of the fifth part was as follows: — 

" Farewell war ; farewell tomahawk ; we have 
been fools till now^ ; henceforth we will be brothers ; 
yes, we will be brothers." 

Then came four presents, the third of which 
enraptured the fathers. It was a belt of seven 
thousand beads of wampum. "But this," says 
Dablon, " was as nothing to the words that accom- 
pa^nied it." " It is the gift of the faith," said the 
orator ; " it is to tell you that we are believers ; it 
is to beg you not to tire of instructing us; have 
patience, seeing that we are so dull in learning 
prayer; push it into our heads and our hearts." 
Then he led Chaumonot into the midst of the as- 
sembly, clasped him in his arms, tied the belt about 
his waist, and protested, with a suspicious redun- 
dancy of words, that as he clasped the father, so 
would he clasp the faith. 

What had wrought this sudden change of heart ? 
The eagerness of the Onondagas that the French 
should settle among them, had, no doubt, a large 
share in it. For the rest, the two Jesuits saw 
abundant signs of the fierce, uncertain nature of 
those with whom they were dealing. Erie prison* 
ers were brought in and tortured before their eyes^ 
one of them being a young stoic of about ten years, 
who endured his fate without a single outcry. 
Huron women and children, taken in war and 
adopted by their captors, were killed on the slight- 
est provocation, and sometimes from mere caprice- 



h566.] DANGERS AND DIFFICULTIES. 19 

For several days the whole town was in an uproar 
with the crazy follies of the " dream feast," ^ and 
one of the Fathers nearly lost his life in this Indian 
Bedlam. 

One point was clear ; the French must make a 
settlement at Onondaga, and that speedily, or, de- 
spite their professions of brotherhood, the Onon- 
dagas would make war. Their attitude became 
menacing ; from urgency they passed to threats ; 
and the two priests felt that the critical posture of 
affairs must at once be reported at Quebec. But 
here a difficulty arose. It was the beaver-hunting 
season; and, eager as were the Indians for a 
French colony, not one of them would o:ffer to 
conduct the Jesuits to Quebec in order to fetch 
one. It was not until nine masses had been said 
to Saint John the Baptist, that a number of Indians 
consented to forego their hunting, and escort 
Father Dablon home.^ Chaumonot remained at 
Onondaga, to watch his dangerous hosts and soothe 
their rising jealousies. 

It was the 2d of March when Dablon began his 
journey. His constitution must have been of iron, 
or he would have succumbed to the appalling hard- 
ships of the way. It was neither winter nor spring. 
I^he lakes and streams were not yet open, but the 
half -thawed ice gave way beneath the foot. One 
of the Indians fell through and was drowned. 
Swamp and forest were clogged with sodden snow, 

* See Jesuits in North America, 67. 

' De Quen, Relation, 1656, 35. Chaumonot, in his Autobiography, 
ascribes the miracle to the intercession of the deceased BreTieuf. 



20 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. |165& 

and ceaseless rains drenched them as they toiled 
on, knee-deep in slush. Happily, the St. Lawrence 
was open. They found an old wooden canoe by 
the shore, embarked, and reached Montreal after 
a journey of four weeks. 

Dablon descended to Quebec. There was long 
and anxious counsel in the chambers of Fort St. 
Louis. The Jesuits had information that, if the 
demands of the Onondagas were rejected, they 
would join the Mohawks to destroy Canada. But 
why were they so eager for a colony of French- 
men ? Did they want them as hostages, that they 
might attack the Hurons and Algonquins without 
risk of French interference ; or would they mas- 
sacre them, and then, like tigers mad with the taste 
of blood, turn upon the helpless settlements of the 
St. Lawrence ? An abyss ya^vned on either hand. 
Lauson, the governor, was in an agony of indeci- 
sion, but at length declared for the lesser and 
remoter peril, and gave his voice for the colony. 
The Jesuits were of the same mind, though it was 
they, and not he, who must bear the brunt of dan- 
ger. " The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the 
Church," said one of them, " and, if we die by the 
fires of the Iroquois, we shall have won eternal life 
by snatching souls from the fires of Hell." 

Preparation was begun at once. The expense 
fell on the Jesuits, and the outfit is said to have 
cost them seven thousand livres, — a heavy sum 
for Canada at that day. A pious gentleman, Zach- 
ary Du Puys, major of the fort of Quebec, joined 
the expedition with ten soldiers; and between 



I^K?.! DEPARTURE. 21 

thirty and forty other Frenchmen also enrolled them- 
selves, impelled by devotion or destitution. Four 
Jesuits, Le Mercier, the superior, with Dablon, 
Menard, and Fremin, besides two lay brothers of 
the order, formed, as it were, the pivot of the 
enterprise. The governor made them the grant of a 
hundred square leagues of land in the heart of the 
Iroquois country, — a preposterous act, which, had 
the Iroquois known it, would have rekindled the 
war ; but Lauson had a mania for land-grants, and 
was himself the proprietor of vast domains which he 
could have occupied only at the cost of his scalp. 

Embarked in two large boats and followed by 
twelve canoes filled with Hurons, Onondagas, and 
a few Senecas lately arrived, they set out on the 
17th of May " to attack the demons," as Le Mer- 
cier writes, "in their very stronghold." With 
shouts, tears, and benedictions, priests, soldiers, and 
inhabitants waved farewell from the strand. They 
passed the bare steeps of Cape Diamond and the 
mission-house nestled beneath the heights of Sil- 
lery, and vanished from the anxious eyes that 
watched the last gleam of their receding oars.* 

Meanwhile three hundred Mohawk warriors had 
taken the war-path, bent on killing or kidnapping 
the Hurons of Orleans. When they heard of the 
departure of the colonists for Onondaga, their rage 
was unbounded ; for not only were they full of 
jealousy towards their Onondaga confederates, but 
they had hitherto derived great profit from the 

* Marie de I'Incarnation, Lettres, 1656. Le Mercier, Relation, 1667 
chap. iv. Chaulmer, Nouveau Monde, II. 265. 322, 319. 



22 THE JESUITS AT 02^^0]S[DAGA. [lC5d 

control wLich their local position gave them over 
the traffic between this tribe and the D itch of the 
Hudson, upon whom the Onondagas, in common 
with all the upper Iroquois, had been dependent 
for their guns, hatchets, scalping-knives, beads, 
blankets, and brandy. These supplies would now^ 
be furnished by the French, and the Mohawk spec- 
ulators saw their occupation gone. Nevertheless, 
they had just made peace with the French, and, 
for the moment, were not quite in the mood to 
break it. To wreak their spite, they took a mid- 
dle course, crouched in ambush among the bushes 
at Point St. Croix, ten or twelve leagues above 
Quebec, allowed the boats bearing the French to 
pass unmolested, and fired a volley at the canoes 
in the rear, filled with Onondagas, Senecas, and 
Hurons. Then they fell upon them with a yell, 
and, after wounding a lay brother of the Jesuits 
who was among them, flogged and bound such of 
the Indians as they could seize. The astonished 
Onondagas protested and threatened ; whereupon 
the Mohawks feigned great surprise, declared that 
they had mistaken them for Hurons, called them 
brothers, and suffered the whole party to escape 
without further injury.^ 

The three hundred maurauders now paddled 
their large canoes of elm-bark stealthily down 
the current, passed Quebec undiscovered in the 
dark night of the 19 th of May, landed in early 
morning on the island of Orleans, and ambushed 

^ Compare Marie de I'lnr arnation, Lettre 14 A lut, 1656, Le Jeunci 
Helatiun, 1657, 9. 



I656.J MOHAWK INSOLENCE. 23 

themselves to surprise the Hurons as they came 
to labor in their cornfields. They were tolerably 
successful, Idlled six, and captured more than 
eighty, the rest taldng refuge in their fort, where 
the Mohawks dared not attack them. 

At noon, the French on the rock of Quebec saw 
foity canoes approaching from the island of Or- 
leans, and defiling, with insolent parade, in front of 
the town, all crowded with the Mohawks and their 
prisoners, among whom were a great number of 
Huron girls. Their captors, as they passed, forced 
them to sing and dance. The Hurons were the 
allies. Or rather the wards of the French, who 
were in every way pledged to protect them. Yet 
the cannon of Fort St. Louis were silent, and the 
crowd stood gaping in bewilderment and fright. 
Had an attack been made, nothing but a complete 
success and the capture of many prisoners to serve 
as hostages could have prevented the enraged Mo- 
hawks from taking their revenge on the Onondaga 
colonists. The emergency demanded a prompt and 
clear-sighted soldier. The governor, Lauson, was 
a gray-haired civihan, who, however enterprising 
as a speculator in wild lands, was in no way matched 
to the desperate crisis of the hour. Some of the 
Mohawks landed above and below the town, and 
plundered the houses from which the scared inhab- 
itants had fled. Not a soldier stirred and not a gun 
was fired. The French, bullied by a horde of naked 
savages, became an object of contempt to their 
own allies. 

The Mohawks carried their prisoners home. 



24 THE JESUITS AT ONUNDAGA [l&bfi 

burned six of them, and adopted or rather en- 
slaved the rest.^ 

JMeanwhile the Onondaga colonists pursued their 
perilous way. At Montreal they exchanged their 
heavy boats for canoes, and resumed their journey 
with a flotilla of twenty of these sylvan vessels. A 
few days after, the Indians of the party had the 
satisfaction of pillaging a small band of Mohawk 
hunters, in vicarious reprisal for their own wrongs. 
On the 26th of June, as they neared Lake Ontario, 
they heard a loud and lamentable voice from the 
edge of the forest ; whereupon, having beaten their 
drum to show that they were Frenchmen, they be- 
held a spectral figure, lean and covered with scars, 
which proved to be a pious Huron, one Joachim 
Ondakout, captured by the Mohawks in their de- 
scent on the island of Orleans, five or six weeks 
before. They had carried him to their village and 
begun to torture him ; after which they tied him 
fast and lay down to sleep, thinking to resume 
their pleasure on the morrow. His cuts and burns 
being only on the surface, he had the good fortune 
to free himself from his bonds, and, naked as he was, 
to escape to the woods. He held his course north- 
westward, through regions even now a wilderness, 
gathered wild strawberries to sustain life, and, in 
fifteen days, reached the St. Lawrence, nearly dead 
with exhaustion. The Frenchmen gave him food 
and a canoe, and the living skeleton paddled with 
a light heart for Quebec. 

The colonists themselves soon began to suffei 

^ See authorities just nited, and Parrot Moeurs des Sauvages, 106. 



1666.] FAMINE. 25 

from hunger. Their fishing failed on Lake Ontario^ 
and they were forced to content themselves mth 
cranberries of the last year, gathered in the mead- 
ows. Of their Indians, all but five deserted them. 
The Father Superior fell ill, and when they reached 
the mouth of the Oswego many of the starving 
Frenchmen had completely lost heart. Weary and 
faint, they dragged their canoes up the rapids, when 
suddenly they were cheered by the sight of a stran- 
ger canoe swiftly descending the current. The 
Onondagas, aware of their approach, had sent it to 
meet them, laden with Indian corn and fresh salmon. 
Two more canoes followed, freighted like the first ; 
and now all was abundance till they reached their 
journey's end, the Lake of Onondaga. It lay before 
them in the July sun, a ghttering mirror, framed 
in forest verdure. 

They knew that Chaumonot with a crowd of In- 
dians was awaiting them at a spot on the margin 
of the water, which he and Dablon had chosen as 
the site of their settlement. Landing on the strand, 
they fired, to give notice of their approach, five 
small cannon which they had brought in their 
canoes. Waves, woods, and hills resomided with 
the thunder of their miniature artillery. Then re- 
embarking, they advanced in order, four canoes 
abreast, towards the destined spot. In front floated 
their banner of white silk, embroidered in large 
letters with the name of Jesus. Here were Du 
Puys and his soldiers, with the picturesque uni- 
forms and quaint weapons of their time ; Le Mer- 
cier and his Jesuits in robes of black ; hunters and 



26 THE JESUITS AT ONOxVDAGA. [1656 

bush-rangers ; Indians painted and feathered for a 
festal day. As they neared the place where a spring 
bubbhng from the hillside is still known as the 
" Jesuits' Well," they saw the edge of the forest 
dark with the muster of savages whose yells of 
welcome answered the salvo of their guns. Happily 
for them, a flood of summer rain saved them from 
the harangues of the Onondaga orators, and forced 
white men and red alike to seek such shelter as 
they could find. Their hosts, with hospitable in- 
tent, would fain have sung and danced all night ; 
but the Frenchmen pleaded fatigue, and the court- 
eous savages, squatting around their tents, chanted 
in monotonous tones to lull them to sleep. In 
the morning they woke refreshed, sang Te 
Deum, reared an altar, and, with a solemn mass, 
took possession of the country in the name of 
.lesus.^ 

Three things, which they saw or heard of in their 
new home, excited their astonishment. The first 
was the vast flight of wild pigeons which in spring 
darkened the air around the Lake of Onondaga; 
the second was the salt springs of Salina ; the third 
was the rattlesnakes, which Le Mercier describes 
with excellent precision, adding that, as he learns 
from the Indians, their tails are good for toothache 
and their flesh for fever. These reptiles, for reasons 
best known to themselves, haunted the neighbor- 
hood of the salt-springs, but did not intrude their 
presence into the abode of the French. 

On the 17th of July, Le Mercier and Chaiunonot, 

1 Le Mercier, Relation, 1657, 14. 



1656.J THE IROQUOIS CAPITAL. 27 

escorted by a file of soldiers, set out for Onondaga, 
scarcely five leagues distant. They followed the 
Indian trail, under the leafy arches of the woods, 
by hill and hollow, still swamp and gurgling brook, 
tiU through the opening foliage they saw the Iro- 
quois capital, compassed with cornfields and girt 
with its rugged pahsade. As the Jesuits, hke black 
spectres, issued from the shadows of the forest, fol- 
lowed by the plumed soldiers with shouldered ar 
quebuses, the red-skinned population swarmed out 
like bees, and they defiled to the town through 
gazing and admiring throngs. All conspired to 
welcome them. Feast followed feast throughout 
the afternoon, tiU, what with harangues and songs, 
bear's meat, beaver-tails, and venison, beans, corn, 
and grease, they were wellnigh killed with kindness. 
" If, after this, they murder us," writes Le Mercier, 
" it will be from fickleness, not premeditated treach- 
ery." But the Jesuits, it seems, had not sounded 
the depths of Iroquois dissimulation.^ 

There was one exception to the real or pretended 
joy. Some Mohawks were in the town, and their 
orator was insolent and sarcastic ; but the ready 
tongue of Chaumonot turned the laugh against him 
and put him to shame. 

Here burned the council fire of the Iroquois, and 
at this very time the deputies of the five tribes 
were assembling. The session opened on the 24th. 

1 The Jesuits were afterwards told by Hurons, captive among the 
Mohawks and the Onondagas, that, from the first, it was intended to 
massacre the French as soon as their presence had attracted the remnant 
of the Hurons of Orleans into the power of the Onondagas. Lettre du P 
Bagueneau au R. P. Provincial, 31 Aout, 1658. 



28 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1656. 

In tlie great council house, on the earthen flooi 
and the broad platforms beneath the smoke- 
begrimed concave of the bark roof, stood, sat, or 
squatted, the wisdom and valor of the confederacy ; 
Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Sen- 
ecas ; sachems, counsellors, orators, warriors fresh 
from Erie victories ; tall, stalwart figures, Hmbed 
like Grecian statues. 

The pressing business of the council over, it was 
Chaumonot's turn to speak. But, first, all the 
Frenchmen, kneeling in a row, with clasped hands, 
sang the Veni Creator, amid the silent admiration 
of the auditors. Then Chaumonofc rose, with an 
immense wampum-belt in his hand. 

" It is not trade that brings us here. Do you 
think that your beaver skins can pay us for all our 
toils and dangers ? Keep them, if you like ; or, if 
any fall into our hands, we shall use them only for 
your service. We seek not the things that perish. 
It is for the Faith that we have left our homes to 
Hve in your hovels of bark, and eat food which the 
beasts of our country would scarcely touch. "We 
are the messengers whom God has sent to tell you 
that his Son became a man for the love of you ; 
that this man, the Son of God, is the prince and 
master of men; that he has prepared in heaven 
eternal joys for those who obey him, and kindled 
the fires of hell for those who will not receive his 
word. If you reject it, whoever you are, — Onon- 
daga, Seneca, Mohawk, Cayuga, or Oneida, — know 
that Jesus Christ, who inspires my heart and my 
voice, will plunge you one day into heU. Avert 



L556.J THE NEW MISSION 29 

Lliis ruin ; be not the authors of your own destruc- 
tion ; accept the truth ; listen to the voice of the 
Omni|3otent." 

Such, in brief, was the pith of the father's ex- 
hortation. As he spoke Indian hke a native, and 
as his voice and gestures answered to his words^ 
we may beheve what Le Mercier tells us, that his 
hearers listened with mingled wonder, admiration, 
and terror. The work was well begun. The Jesuits 
struck while the iron was hot, built a small chapel 
for the mass, installed themselves in the town, and 
preached and catechised from morning till night. 

The Frenchmen at the lake were not idle. The 
chosen site of their settlement was the crown of a 
hill commanding a broad view of waters and forests. 
The axemen fell to their work, and a ghastly wound 
soon gaped in the green bosom of the woodland. 
Here, among the stumps and prostrate trees of the 
unsightly clearing, the blacksmith built his forge, 
saw and hammer phed their trade ; palisades were 
shaped and beams squared, in spite of heat, mos- 
quitoes, and fever. At one time twenty men were 
ill, and lay gasping under a wretched shed of bark ; 
but they all recovered, and the work went on till 
at length a capacious house, large enough to hold 
the whole colony, rose above the ruin of the forest. 
A palisade was set around it, and the Mission of 
Saint Mary of Gannentaa^ was begun. 

France and the Faith were intrenched on the 
Lake of Onondaga. How long would they remain 

1 Gannentaa or Ganuntaah is still the Iroquois name for Lake OnoD 
daga. According to Morgan, it means " Material for Council Fire" 



30 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1656 

there ? The future alone could tell. The mission, 
it must not be forgotten, had a double scope, 
half ecclesiastical, half political. The Jesuits had 
essayed a fearful task, — to convert the Iroquois to 
God and to the king, thwart the Dutch heretics of 
the Hudson, save souls from hell, avert ruin from 
Canada, and thus raise their order to a place of 
honor and influence both hard earned and well 
earned. The mission at Lake Onondaga was but 
a base of operations. Long before they were lodged 
and fortified here, Chaumonot and Menard set out 
for the Cayugas, whence the former proceeded to 
the Senecas, the most numerous, and powerful of 
the five confederate nations ; and in the following 
spring another mission was begun among the On- 
eidas. Their reception was not unfriendly; but 
such was the reticence and dissimulation of these 
inscrutable savages, that it was impossible to fore- 
tell results. The women proved, as might be ex- 
])ected, far more impressible than the men ; and in 
them the fathers placed great hope ; since in this, 
the most savage people of the continent, women 
held a degree of political influence never perhaps 
equalled in any civihzed nation.^ 

1 Wamen, among the Iroquois, had a council of their own, which, 
according to Lafitau, who knew this people well, had the initiative in 
discussion, subjects presented by them being settled in the council of 
chiefs and elders. In this latter council the women had an orator, often 
of their own sex, to represent them. The matrons had a leading voice in 
determining the succession of chiefs. There were also female cliiefs, one 
of whom, with her attendants, came to Quebec with an embassy in 1655 
(Marie de I'lncamation). In the torture of prisoners, great deference 
was paid to the judgment of the women, who, says Champlain, were 
thought more skilful and subtle than the men. 

The learned Lafitau, whose book appeared in 1724, dwells at lengtb 



1667. 1 JESUIT COUEAGE. 3.1 

But while infants were baptized and squaws con- 
verted, the crosses of the mission were many and 
great. The devil bestirred himself with more than 
his ordinary activity ; " for," as one of the fathers 
writes, " when in sundry nations of the earth men 
are rising up in strife against us (the Jesuits), then 
how much more the demons, on whom we con^ 
tinually wage war ! " It was these infernal sprites, 
as the priests believed, who engendered suspicions 
and calumnies in the dark and superstitious minds 
of the Iroquois, and prompted them in dreams to 
destroy the apostles of the faith. Whether the 
foe was of earth or hell, the Jesuits were like those 
who tread the lava-crust that palpitates with the 
throes of the coming eruption, while the molten 
death beneath their feet glares white-hot through 
a thousand crevices. Yet, with a subhme enthu- 
siasm and a glorious constancy, they toiled and 
they hoped, though the skies around were black 
with portent. 

In the year in which the colony at Onondaga 
was begun, the Mohawks murdered the Jesuit Gar- 
rean, on his way up the Ottawa. In the following 
spring, a hundred Mohawk warriors came to Quebec, 
to carry more of the Hurons into slavery, though 
the remnant of that unhappy people, since the 
catastrophe of the last year, had sought safety in a 

on the resemblance of the Iroquois to the ancient Lycians, among whom, 
according to Grecian writers, women were in the ascendant. " Gynecoc- 
racy, or the rule of women," continues Lafitau, " wliich was the founda- 
tion of the Lycian government, was probably common in early times to 
nearly all the barbarous people of Greece " Mceurs des Sauvages, I. 460 
(ed. in 4t)i) 



32 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1657. 

palisaded camp within the limits of the French 
toAvn, and immediately under the ramparts of Fort 
St. Louis. Here, one might think, they would 
have been safe ; but Charny, son and successor of 
Lauson, seems to have been even more imbecile 
than his father, and listened meekly to the threats 
of the insolent strangers who told him that unless 
he abandoned the Hurons to their mercy, both they 
and the French should feel the weight of Mohawk 
tomahaw^ks. They demanded further, that the 
French should give them boats to carry their 
prisoners ; but, as there were none at hand, this 
last humihation was spared. The Mohawks were 
forced to make canoes, in which they carried off as 
many as possible of their victims. 

When the Onondagas learned this last exploit of 
their rivals, their jealousy knew no bounds, and a 
troop of them descended to Quebec to claim their 
share in the human plunder. Deserted by the 
French, the despairing Hurons abandoned them- 
selves to their fate, and about fifty of those whom 
the Mohawks had left obeyed the behest of their 
tyrants and embarked for Onondaga. They reached 
Montreal in July, and thence proceeded towards 
their destination in company with the Onondaga 
warriors. The Jesuit Ragueneau, bound also for 
Onondaga, joined them. Five leagues above Mon- 
treal, the warrior? left him behind ; but he found 
an old canoe on the bank, in which, after abandon 
ing most of his baggage, he contrived to follow 
with two or three Frenchmen who were with him. 
There was a rumor that a hundred Mohawk war- 



1657.J ONONDAGA TREACHERY. 33 

riors were lying in wait among the Thousand 
Islands, to plunder the Onondagas of their Huron 
prisoners. It proved a false report. A speedier 
catastrophe awaited these unfortunates. 

Towards evening on the 3d of August, after the 
party had landed to encamp, an Onondaga chief 
made advances to a Christian Huron girl, as he had 
already done at every encampment since leaving 
Montreal. Being repulsed for the fourth time, he 
split her head with his tomahawk. It was the 
beginning of a massacre. The Onondagas rose 
upon their prisoners, killed seven men, all Chris- 
tians, before the eyes of the horrified Jesuit, and 
plundered the rest of all they had. When Rague- 
neau protested, they told him with insolent mockery 
that they were acting by direction of the governor 
and the superior of the Jesuits, The priest him- 
seK was secretly warned that he was to be killed 
during the night; and he was surprised in the 
morning to find himself alive .^ On reaching Onon- 
daga, some of the Christian captives were burned, 
including several women and their infant chil- 
dren.^ 

The confederacy was a hornet's nest, buzzing 
with preparation, and fast pouring out its wrathful 
swarms. The indomitable Le Moyne had gone again 
to the Mohawks, whence he wrote that two hundred 
of them had taken the war-path against the Algon- 
quins of Canada ; and, a httle later, that all were 
gone but women, children, and old men. A great 

1 Lettre de Eagueneau au R. P. Provincial, 9 Aout, 1657 (Rd., 1657). 
9 Ibid., 21 Aaut, 1658 (ReL, 1658). 



34 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. [1CC7 

war-party of twelve hundred Iroquois from all 
the five cantons was to advance into Canada in the 
direction of the Ottawa. The settlements on the 
St. Lawrence were infested with prowling warriors, 
who killed the Indian allies of the French, and 
plundered the French themselves, whom Ihej' 
treated with an insufferable insolence ; for ihey 
felt themselves masters of the situation, and knew 
that the Onondaga colony was in their power. Near 
Montreal they killed three Frenchmen. " They 
approach like foxes," writes a Jesuit, " attack like 
lions, and disappear like birds." Charny, fortu- 
nately, had resigned the government in despair, in 
order to turn priest, and the brave soldier Aille- 
bout had taken his place. He caused twelve of 
the Iroquois to be seized and held as hostages. 
This seemed to increase their fury. An embassy 
came to Quebec and demanded the release of the 
hostages, but were met with a sharp reproof and a 
flat refusal. 

At the mission on Lake Onondaga the crisis 
was drawing near. The unbridled young warriors, 
whose capricious lawlessness often set at naught 
the monitions of their crafty elders, killed wantonly 
at various times thirteen Christian Hurons, cap- 
tives at Onondaga. Ominous reports reached the 
ears of the colonists. They heard of a secret council 
at which their death was decreed. Again, they 
heard that they were to be surprised and captured, 
that the Iroquois in force were then to descend 
upon Canada, lay waste the outlying settlements, 
and torture them, the colonists, in si2:ht of their 



1658 I FRIGHTFUL POSITION. 35 

conn tryraen, by which they hoped to extort what 
terms they pleased. At length, a dying Onondaga, 
recently converted and baptized, confirmed the 
r amors, and revealed the whole plot. 

It was to take effect before the spring opened ; 
but the hostages in the hands of Aillebout em- 
barrassed the conspirators and caused delay. Mes- 
sengers were sent in haste to call in the priests 
from the detached missions, and all the colonists, 
fifty-three in number, were soon gathered at their 
fortified house on the lake. Their situation was 
frightful. Fate hung over them by a hair, and 
escape seemed hopeless. Of Du Puys's ten soldiers, 
nine wished to desert, but the attempt would have 
been fatal. A throng of Onondaga warriors were 
day and night on the watch, bivouacked around 
the house. Some of them had built their huts of 
bark before the gate, and here, with calm, impas- 
sive faces, they lounged and smoked their pipes ; 
or, wrapped in their blankets, strolled about the 
yards and outhouses, attentive to all that passed. 
Their behavior was very friendly. The Jesuits, 
themselves adepts in dissimulation, were amazed at 
tlie depth of their duplicity ; for the conviction had 
been forced upon them that some of the chiefs had 
nursed their treachery from the first. In this ex- 
tremity Du Puys and the Jesuits showed an admi- 
rable coolness, and among them devised a plan of 
escape, critical and full of doubt, but not devoid 
of hope. 

First, they must provide means of transporta- 
tion ; next, they must contrive to use them undis* 



86 THE JESUITS AT ONQNDAGA. |1658. 

covered. They had eight canoes, all of which 
combined would not hold half their company. 
Over the mission-house was a large loft or garret, 
and here the carpenters were secretly set at work 
to construct tw^o large and light flat-boats, each 
capable of carrying fifteen men. The task was 
soon finished. The most difficult part of their plan 
remained. 

There was a beastly superstition prevalent among 
the Hurons, the Iroquois, and other tribes. It con- 
sisted of a " medicine " or mystic feast, in which it 
was essential that the guests should devour every 
thing set before them, however inordinate in quan- 
tity, unless absolved from duty by the person in 
whose behalf the solemnity was ordained ; he, on 
his part, taking no share in the banquet. So grave 
was the obligation, and so strenuously did the 
guests fulfil it, that even their ostrich digestion 
was sometimes ruined past redemption by the 
excess of tiiis benevolent gluttony. These festins 
a manger tout had been frequently denounced as 
diabolical by the Jesuits, during their mission 
among the Hurons ; but now, with a pliancy of 
conscience as excusable in this case as in any 
other, they resolved to set aside their scruples, 
although, judged from their point of vie^v, they 
were exceedingly well founded. 

Among the French was a young man who had 
been adopted by an Iroquois chief, and who spoke 
the language fluently. He now told his Indian 
father that it had been revealed to him in a dream 
that he would soon die unless the spirits were 



1658.] THE MEDICINE FEAST. 37 

jilipoasi'il hy one of these magic feasts. Dreama 
were the oracles of the Iroquois, and woe to those 
who slighted them. A day was named for the 
sacred festivity. The fathers killed their hogs to 
meet the occasion, and, that nothing might be 
wauling, they ransacked their stores for all that 
might give piquancy to the entertainment. It 
took place in the evening of the 20th of March, 
apparently in a large enclosure outside the palisade 
surrounding the mission-house. Here, while blazing 
fires or glaring pine-knots shed their glow on the 
wild assemblage, Frenchmen and Iroquois joined In 
the dance, or vied with each other in games of 
agility and skill. The politic fathers offered prizes 
to the winners, and the Indians entered with zest 
into the sport, the better, perhaps, to hide their 
treachery and hoodwink their intended victims ; 
for they little suspected that a subtlety, deeper 
this time than their own, was at w^ork to counter- 
mine them. Here, too, w^ere the French musicians ; 
and drum, trumpet, and cymbal lent their clangor 
to the din of shouts and laughter. Thus the even- 
ing wore on, till at length the serious labors of the 
feast began. The kettles were brought in, and 
their steaming contents ladled into the wooden 
bowls wdiich each provident guest had brought 
with him. Seated gravely in a ring, they fell to 
their work. It was a point of high conscience not 
to flinch from duty on these solemn occasions ; and 
though they might burn the young man to-morrow, 
they would gorge themselves like vultures in hia 
behoof to-day. 



38 THE rSdUITS AT ONONDAGA. [165a 

Meantime, while the musicians strained their 
lungs and their arms to drown all other sounds, 
a band of anxious Frenchmen, in the darkness of 
the cloudy night, with cautious tread and bated 
breath, carried the boats from the rear of the mis- 
sion-house down to the border of the lake. It was 
near eleven o'clock. The miserable guests \^ere 
choking with repletion. They prayed the young 
Frenchman to dispense them from further surfeit. 
" Will you suffer me to die ? " he asked, in piteous 
tones. They bent to their task again, but Nature 
soon reached her utmost limit ; and they sat help- 
less as a conventicle of gorged turkey-buzzards, 
without the power possessed by those unseemly 
birds to rid themselves of the burden. " That will 
do," said the young man ; " you have eaten enough ; 
my life is saved. Now you can sleep till we come 
in the morning to waken you for prayers." ^ And 
one of his companions played soft airs on a violin 
to lull them to repose. Soon all were asleep, or 
in a lethargy akin to sleep. The few remaining 
Frenchmen now silently withdrew and cautiously 
descended to the shore, where their comrades, al- 
ready embarked, lay on their oars anxiously await- 
ing them. Snow was falling fast as they pushed 
out upon the murky waters. The ice of the winter 
had broken up, but recent frosts had glazed the 
surface with a thin crust. The two boats led the 
way, and the canoes followed in their wake, while 
men in the bows of the foremost boat broke the 
ice with clubs as they advanced. They reached 

1 Fjettre de Marie de V Incarnation a son Jils, 4 Octohre, 1658. 



1658.J PERPLEXITY OF THE IROQUOIS. 39 

the outlet and rowed swiftly down the dark cur- 
rent of the Oswego. When day broke, Lake Onon- 
daga was far behmd, and around them was the 
leafless, lifeless forest. 

When the Indians woke in the morning, dull anc 
stupefied from their nightmare slumbers, they were 
astonished at the silence that reigned in the mission- 
house. They looked through the palisade. Noth- 
ing was stirring but a bevy of hens clucking and 
scratching in the snow, and one or two dogs im- 
prisoned in the house and barking to be set free 
The Indians waited for some time, then climbed 
the pahsade, burst in the doors, and found the 
house empty. Their amazement was unbounded. 
How, without canoes, could the French have es- 
caped by water ? and how else could they escape ? 
The snow which had faUen during the night com- 
pletely hid their footsteps. A superstitious awe 
seized the Iroquois. They thought that the " black- 
robes " and their flock had flown off through the 
air. 

Meanwhile the fugitives pushed their flight with 
the energy of terror, passed in safety the rapids 
of the Oswego, crossed Lake Ontario, and de- 
scended the St. Lawrence with the loss of three 
men drowned in the rapids. On the 3d of April 
they reached Montreal, and on the 23d arrived at 
Quebec. They had saved their lives ; but the mis- 
sion of Onondaga was a miserable failure.^ 

1 On the Onondaga mission, the authorities are Marie de I'lncama- 
tion, Lettres Historiques, and Relations des J^suites, 1657 and 165b, where 
the story is told at length, accompanied with several interesting letters 
and journals. Chaumonot^ in his Autobiographie, speaks only of the 



4:0 THE JESUITS AT ONONDAGA. 11658 

Seneca mission, and refers to the Relations for the rest. Dollier de Cas- 
son, in his Ilistoire du Montreal, mentions the arrival of the fugitives at 
tliat place, tlie sight of which, he adds complacently, cured them of their 
fright. The Journal des Sup€rieurs des J€suites chronicles with its usual 
brevity the ruin of the mission and the return of the party to Quebec. 

The Jesuits, in their account, say nothing of the superstitious charae 
ter of the feast. It is Marie de ITncarnation who lets out the secret. 
The Jesuit Charlevoix, much to his credit, repeats the story without 
reserve. 

The Sulpitian 'Allet, in a memoir printed in the Morale Pratique des 
J^suites, says that the French placed effigies of soldiers, made of straw, iq 
the fort, to deceive tlie Indians. He adds that the Jesuits found very 
little sympathy at Quebec. 



CHAPTER n. 

1642-1661. 
THE HOLY WAKS OE MONTREAL. 

DAUVBRSlilKB. — MaNCE AND BOCEGEOTS. — MiEACLE. — A P1OU8 Db« 

FAULTEE. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Monteeal in 1659. — Thh 
Hospital Nuns. — The Nuns and the Iroquois. — More Mir- 
acles. — The Murdered Priests. — Beigeac and Closse. — 
Soldiers op the Holt Eamilt. 

On the 2d of July, 1659, the ship " St. Andre " 
lay in the harbor of Rochelle, crowded with pas- 
sengers for Canada. She had served two years as 
a hospital for marines, and was infected with a 
contagious fever. Including the crew, some two 
hundred persons were on board, more than half of 
whom were bound for Montreal. Most of these 
were -sturdy laborers, artisans, peasants, and sol- 
diers, together with a troop of young women, their 
present or future partners ; a portion of the com- 
pany set down on the old record as " sixty virtu- 
ous men and thirty- two pious girls." There were 
two priests also, Vignal and Le Maitre, both des- 
tined to a speedy death at the hands of the Iro- 
quois. But the most conspicuous among these 
passengers for Montreal were two groups of women 
in the habit of nuns, under the direction of Mar- 



42 THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL. 11659 

guerite Bourgeoys and Jeanne Mance. Marguerite 
Bourgeoys, whose kind, womanly face bespoke her 
fitness for the task, was foundress of the school for 
female children at Montreal; her companion, a 
tall, austere figure, worn with suffering and care, 
was directress of the hospital. Both had returned 
to France for aid, and were now on their way back, 
each with three recruits, three being the mystic 
number, as a type of the Holy Family, to whose 
worship they were especially devoted. 

Amid the bustle of departure*, the shouts of sail- 
ors, the rattling of cordage, the flapping of sails, 
the tears and the embracings, an elderly man, with 
heavy plebeian features, sallow with disease, and in 
a sober, half-clerical dress, approached Mademoi- 
selle Mance and her three nuns, and, turning his 
eyes to heaven, spread his hands over them in 
benediction. It was Le Royer de la Dauversiere, 
founder of the sisterhood of St. Joseph, to which 
the three nuns belonged. " Now, Lord," he ex- 
claimed, with the look of one whose mission on 
iarth is fulfilled, " permit thou thy servant to de- 
part in peace ! " 

Sister Maillet, who had charge of the meagre 
treasury of the community, thought that some- 
thing more than a blessing was due from him; 
and asked where she should apply for payment of 
the interest of the twenty thousand livres which 
Mademoiselle Mance had placed in his hands for 
investment. Dauversiere changed countenance, 
and replied, with a troubled voice : " My daughter, 
God will provide for you. Place your trust in 



1.642-57.] MANCE AND BOURGEOYS. 43 

Him."^ He was bankrupt, and had used the 
money of the sisterhood to pay a debt of his own, 
leaving the nuns penniless. 

I have related in another place ^ how an associa- 
tion of devotees, inspired, as they supposed, from 
heaven, had undertaken to found a religious col- 
ony at Montreal in honor of the Holy Family. 
The essentials of the proposed establishment were 
to be a seminary of priests dedicated to the Virgin, 
a hospital to Saint Joseph, and a school to the Infant 
Jesus ; while a settlement was to be formed around 
them simply for their defence and maintenance. 
This pious purpose had in part been accomplished. 
It was seventeen years since Mademoiselle Mance 
had begun her labors in honor of Saint Joseph. Mar- 
guerite Bourgeoys had entered upon hers more 
recently ; yet even then the attempt was prema- 
ture, for she found no white children to teach. In 
time, however, this want was supplied, and she 
opened her school in a stable, which answered to 
the stable of Bethlehem, lodging with her pupils 
in the loft, and instructing them in Roman Cath- 
olic Christianity, with such rudiments of mundane 
knowledge as she and her advisers thought fit to 
impart. 

Mademoiselle Mance found no lack of hospital 
work, for blood and blows were rife at Montreal, 
where the woods were full of Iroquois, and not a 
moment was without its peril. Though years be- 



^ Faillon, Vie de M'lle Mance, I. 172. This volume is illustrated witli 
a portrait of Dauversiere. 

2 The Jesuits in North America. 



44 THE HOLY WAES OF MONTREAL. 11658 

gan to tell upon her, she toiled patiently at her 
dreary task, till, in the winter of 1657, she fell on 
the ice of the St. Lawrence, broke her right arm, 
and dislocated the wrist. Bonchard, the surgeon 
of Montreal, set the broken bones, but did not 
discover the dislocation. The arm in consequence 
became totally useless, and her health wasted away 
under incessant and violent pain. Maisonneuve, 
the civil and military chief of the settlement, ad- 
vised her to go to France for assistance in the work 
to which she was no longer equal ; and Marguerite 
Bourgeoys, whose pupils, white and red, had greatly 
multiplied, resolved to go with her for a similar ob- 
ject. They set out in September, 1658, landed at 
Rochelle, and went thence to Paris. Here they 
repaired to the seminary of St. Sulpice ; for the 
priests of this community were joined with them 
in the work at Montreal, of which they were after- 
wards to become the feudal proprietors. 

Now ensued a wonderful event, if we may trust 
the evidence of sundry devout persons. Olier, the 
founder of St. Sulpice, had lately died, and the two 
pilgrims would fain pay their homage to his heart, 
which the priests of his community kept as a pre- 
cious rehc, enclosed in a leaden box. The box was 
brought, when the thought inspired Mademoiselle 
Mance to try its miraculous efficacy and invoke the 
intercession of the departed founder. She did so, 
touching her disabled arm gently with the leaden 
casket. Instantly a grateful warmth pervaded the 
shrivelled Hmb, and from that hour its use was 
restored. It is true that the Jesmts ventured to 



1658-59.1 THE UNKNOWN BENEFACTRESS. 46 

doubt the Sulpitian miracle, and even to lidicule 
it ; but the Sulpitians will show to this day the at- 
testation of Mademoiselle Mance herself, written 
with the fingers once paralyzed and powerless,' 
Nevertheless, the cure was not so thorough as to 
permit her again to take charge of her patients. 

Her next care was to visit Madame de Bullion, 
a devout lady of great wealth, who was usually 
desio-nated at Montreal as " the unknown benefac- 
tress," because, though her charities were the main- 
stay of the feeble colony, and though the source; 
from which they proceeded was well known, she 
affected, in the interest of humility, the greatesi 
secrecy, and required those who profited by her 
gifts to pretend ignorance whence they came. 
Overflowing with zeal for the pious enterprise, she 
received her visitor with enthusiasm, lent an open 
ear to her recital, responded graciously to her ap- 
peal for aid, and paid over to her the sum, munifi- 
cent at that day, of twenty-two thousand francs. 
Thus far successful. Mademoiselle Mance repaired 
to the town of La Fleche to visit Le Royer de la 
Dauversiere. 

It was this wretched fanatic who, through visions 
and revelations, had first conceived the plan of a 
hospital in honor of Saint Joseph at Montreal.^ He 
had found in Mademoiselle Mance a zealous and 
efficient pioneer ; but the execution of his scheme 
required a community of hospital nuns, and ther© 

1 For an account of this miracle, written in perfect good faith and 
supported by various attestations, see Eaillon, Vie de M'Ue Mance, chap, i' 

2 See The Jesuits in North America. 



46 THE HOLY WAKS OF MONTREAL. [1659 

fore lie had labored for the last eighteen years to 
form one at La Fleche, meaning to despatch its 
members in due time to Canada. The time at length 
was come. Three of the nuns were chosen, Sisters 
Bresoles, Mace, and Maillet, and sent under the 
escort of certain pious gentlemen to Rochelle. 
Their exit from La Fleche was not without its 
difficulties. Dauversiere was in ill odor, not only 
from the multiplicity of his debts, but because, in 
his character of agent of the association of Mon- 
treal, he had at various times sent thither those 
whom his biographer describes as " the most virtu- 
ous girls to be found at La Fleche," intoxicating 
them with religious excitement, and shipping them 
for the New World against the will of their parents. 
It was noised through the town that he had kid- 
napped and sold them ; and now the report spread 
abroad that he was about to crown his iniquity by 
'uring away three young nuns. A mob gathered 
at the convent gate, and the escort were forced to 
draw their swords to open a way for the terrified 
sisters. 

Of the twenty-two thousand francs which she had 
received, Mademoiselle Mance kept two thousand 
for immediate needs, and confided the rest to the 
liands of Dauversiere, who, hard pressed by his 
creditors, used it to pay one of his debts; and 
then, to his horror, found himself unable to replace 
it. Eacked by the gout and tormented by re- 
morse, he betook himself to his bed in a state of 
body and mind truly pitiable. One of the miracles, 
so frequent in the early annals of Montreal, was 



1659. 1 DELAY AND DIFFICULTY. 47 

vouchsafed in answer to Ms prayer, and he was 
enabled to journey to Rochelle and bid farewell to 
his nuns. It was but a brief respite ; he returned 
home to become the prey of a host of maladies, and 
to die at last a lingering and painful death. 

While Mademoiselle Mance was gaining recruits 
in La Fleche, Marguerite Bourgeoys was no lesa 
successful in her native town of Troyes, and she 
rejoined her companions at Rochelle, accompanied 
by Sisters Chatel, Crolo, and Raisin, her destined 
assistants in the school at Montreal. Meanwhile, 
the Sulpitians and others interested in the pious 
enterprise, had spared no effort to gather men to 
strengthen the colony, and young women to serve 
as their wives; and all were now mustered at 
Rochelle, waiting for embarkation. Their wait- 
ing was a long one. Laval, bishop at Quebec, was 
allied to the Jesuits, and looked on the colonists 
of Montreal with more than coldness. Sulpitian 
writers say that his agents used every effort to 
discourage them, and that certain persons at Ro- 
chelle told the master of the ship in which the 
emigrants were to sail that they were not to be 
trusted to pay their passage-money. Hereupon 
ensued a delay of more than two months before 
means could be found to quiet the scruples of the 
prudent commander. At length the anchor was 
weighed, and the dreary voyage begun. 

The woe-begone company, crowded in the filthy 
and infected ship, were tossed for two months more 
on the relentless sea, buffeted by repeated storms, 
and wasted by a contagious fever, wliich attacked 



48 THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL. [1659. 

nearly all of them and reduced Mademoiselle Mance 
to extremity. Eight or ten died and were dropped 
overboard, after a prayer from the two priests. At 
length land hove in sight ; the piny odors of the 
forest regaled their languid senses as they sailed 
up the broad estuary of the St. Lawrence and 
anchored under the rock of Quebec. 

High aloft, on the brink of the cliff, they saw 
t\\Q fleur-de-lis waving above the fort of St. Louis, 
and, beyond, the cross on the tower of the cathe- 
dral traced against the sky ; the houses of the mer- 
chants on the strand below, and boats and canoes 
drawn up along the bank. The bishop and the 
Jesuits greeted them as co-workers in a holy cause, 
with an unction not wholly sincere. Though a 
unit against heresy, the pious founders of New 
France were far from unity among themselves. 
To the thinking of the Jesuits, Montreal was a 
government within a government, a wheel within 
a wheel. This rival Sulpitian settlement was, in 
their eyes, an element of disorganization adverse 
to the discipKned harmony of the Canadian Church, 
which they would fain have seen, with its focus at 
Quebec, radiating light unrefracted to the utter- 
most parts of the colony. That is to say, they 
wished to control it unchecked, through their ally, 
the bishop. 

The emigrants, then, were received with a studi- 
ous courtesy, which veiled but thinly a stiff and 
persistent opposition. The bishop and the Jesuits 
were especially anxious to prevent the La Fleche 
nuns from establishing themselves at Montreal, 



1659. J MONTREAL 4'j 



where they would form a separate community, 
Linder Sulpitian influence ; and, in place of the 
newly arrived sisters, they wished to substitute 
nuns from the HStel Dieu of Quebec, who would 
be under their own control. That which most 
strikes the non-Catholic reader throughout this 
affair is the constant reticence and dissimulation 
practised, not only between Jesuits and Montreal- 
ists, but among the Montrealists themselves. Their 
self-devotion, great as it was, was fairly matched 
by their disingenuousness.^ 

All difficulties being overcome, the Montreahsts 
embarked in boats and ascended the St. Lawrence, 
leaving Quebec infected with the contagion they 
had brought. The journey now made in a single 
night cost them fifteen days of hardship and 
danger. At length they reached their new home. 
The little settlement lay before them, still gasping 
betwixt life and death, in a puny, precarious in- 
fancy. Some forty small, compact houses were 
ranged parallel "to the river, chiefly along the fine 
of what is now St. Paul's Street. On the left there 
was a fort, and on a rising ground at the right a 
massive windmill of stone, enclosed with a wall or 
palisade pierced for musketry, and answering the 
purpose of a redoubt or block-house.^ Fields, 
studded with charred and blackened stumps, be- 

* See, for example, chapter ir. of Faillon's Life of Mademoiselle 
Mance. The evidence is unanswerable, the writer being the partisan 
and admirer of most of those whose pieuse tromperie, to use the expression 
of DoUier de Casson, he describes in apparent unconsciousness that any 
oody will see reason to cavil at it. 

2 Lettre du Vicomte d' Argenson, Gouverneur du Canada, 4 Aout, 1669, MS 

4 



50 THE HOLY WAES OF MONTREAL. [1657-61 

tween wliicli crops were growing, stretched away 
to the edges of the bordering forest; and the 
green, shaggy back of the mountain towered 
over all. 

There were at this time a hundred and sixty 
men at Montreal, about fifty of whom had families, 
or at least wives. They greeted the new-comers 
with a welcome which, this time, was as sincere as 
it was warm, and bestirred themselves with alacrity 
to provide them with shelter for the winter. As 
for the three nuns from La Fleche, a chamber was 
hastily made for them over two low rooms which 
had served as Mademoiselle Mance's hospital. This 
chamber was twenty-five feet square, with four 
cells for the nuns, and a closet for stores and cloth- 
ing, which for the present was empty, as they had 
landed in such destitution that they were forced to 
sell all their scanty equipment to gain the bare 
necessaries of existence. Little could be hoped 
from the colonists, who were scarcely less destitute 
than they. Such was their poverty, — thanks to 
Dauversiere's breach of trust, — that when 'heir 
clothes were worn out, they were unable to replace 
them, and were forced to patch them with such 
material as came to hand. Maisonneuve, the gov- 
ernor, and the pious Madame d'Aillebout, being 
once on a visit to the hospital, amused themselves 
with trying to guess of what stuff the habits of the 
nuns had originally been made, and were unable 
to agree on the point in question.^ 

1 AnnaJes des Hospitah'eres de Villemarie, par la Sceur Morin, a con- 
temporary record, from which Faillon gives long extracts. 



1657-61.1 SISTER MACfi. 51 

Their chamber, which they occupied for many 
years, being hastily built of ill-seasoned planks, let 
in the piercing cold of the Canadian winter through 
coimtless cracks and chinks ; and the driving snow 
sifted through in such quantities that they were 
sometimes obliged, the morning after a storm, to 
remove it with shovels. Their food would freeze 
on the table before them, and their coarse brown 
bread had to be thawed on the hearth before they 
could cut it. These women had been nurtured in 
ease, if not in luxury. One of them, Judith de 
Bresoles, had in her youth, by advice of her con- 
fessor, run away from parents who were devoted 
to her, and immured herself in a convent, leaving 
them in agonies of doubt as to her fate. She now 
acted as superior of the little community. One of 
her nuns records of her that she had a fervent 
devotion for the Infant Jesus ; and that, along with 
many more spiritual graces, he inspired her with 
so transcendent a skill in cookery, that " with a 
small piece of lean pork and a few herbs she could 
make soup of a marvellous relish."^ Sister Mace 
was charged with the care of the pigs and hens, to 
whose wants she attended in person, though she, 
too, had been dehcately bred. In course of time, 
the sisterhood was increased by additions from 
without ; though more than twenty girls who 
entered the hospital as novices recoiled from the 
hardship, and took husbands in the colony. Among 

* " C'etait par son recours k I'Enfant J^sus qu'elle trouvait tous ces 
secrets et d'autres semblables, ' writes in our own day the excellent 
annalist, Faillon. 



52 THE HOLY WARS UF MONTREAL. [1657-61 

a few who took the vows, Sister Jumeau should 
not pass unnoticed. Such was her humility, that, 
though of a good family and unable to divest her- 
self of the marks of good breeding, she pretended 
to be the daughter of a poor peasant, and per- 
sisted in repeating the pious falsehood till the 
merchant Le Ber told her flatly that he did not 
believe her. 

The sisters had great need of a man to do the 
heavy work of the house and garden, but found no 
means of hiring one, when an incident, in which 
they saw a special providence, excellently supplied 
the want. There was a poor colonist named Jouan- 
eaux to whom a piece of land had been given at 
some distance from the settlement. Had he built 
a cabin upon it, his scalp would soon have paid the 
forfeit ; but, being bold and hardy, he devised a 
plan by which he might hope to sleep in safety 
without abandoning the farm which was his only 
possession. Among the stumps of his clearing there 
was one hollow with age. Under this he dug a 
sort of cave, the entrance of which was a small hole 
carefully hidden by brushwood. The hollow stump 
was easily converted into a chimney ; and by creep- 
ing into his burrow at night, or when he saw signs 
of danger, he escaped for some time the notice of 
the Iroquois. But, though he could dispense with 
a house, he needed a barn for his hay and corn ; 
and while he was building one, he fell from the 
ridge of the roof and was seriously hurt. He was 
carried to the H5tel Dieu, where the nuns showed 
him every attention, until, after a long confinement, 



1667 -61 -J PERIL OF THE NUNS. 53 

he at last recovered. Being of a grateful nature 
and enthusiastically devout, he was so touched by 
the kindness of his benefactors, and so moved by 
the spectacle of their piety, that he conceived the 
\vish of devoting his life to their service. To thia 
end a contract was drawn up, by which he pledged 
liimself to work for them as long as strength re- 
mained ; and they, on their part, agreed to main- 
tain hun in sickness or old age. 

Tliis stout-hearted retainer proved invaluable ^ 
though, had a guard of soldiers been added, it 
would have been no more than the case demanded. 
Montreal was not palisaded, and at. first the hospital 
was as much exposed as the rest. The Iroquois 
would skulk at night among the houses, like wolves 
in a camp of sleeping travellers on the prairies ; 
though the human foe was, of the two, incompar- 
ably the bolder, fiercer, and more bloodthirsty. 
More than once one of these prowhng savages was 
known to have crouched all night in a rank growth 
of wild mustard in the garden of the nuns, vainly 
hoping that one of them would come out within 
reach of his tomahawk. During summer, a month 
rarely passed without a fight, sometimes within 
ugh t of their windows. A burst of yells from the 
ambushed marksmen, followed by a clatter of miis- 
ketiy, would announce the opening of the fray, 
and promise the nuns an addition to their list of 
patients. On these occasions they bore themselves 
according to their several natures. Sister Morin, 
who had joined their number three years after 
their arrival, relates that Sister Br^soles and she 



54 THE HOLY WAES OF MONTREAL. (1657-61 

used to run to the belfry and ring the tocsin to 
call the inhabitants together. " From our high 
station," she writes, " we could sometimes see the 
combat, w^hich terrified us extremely, so that we 
came down again as soon as we could, trembling 
mth fright, and thinking that our last hour was 
come. When the tocsin sounded, my Sister Maillet 
would become faint with excess of fear ; and my 
Sister Mac^, as long as the alarm continued, would 
remain speechless, in a state pitiable to see. They 
would both get into a corner of the rood-loft, before 
the Holy Sacrament, so as to be prepared for death ; 
or else go into their cells. As soon as I heard that 
the Iroquois were gone, I went to tell them, which 
comforted them and seemed to restore them to life. 
My Sister Br^soles was stronger and more coura- 
geous ; her terror, which she could not help, did not 
prevent her from attending the sick and receiving 
the dead and wounded who were brought in." 

The priests of St. Sulpice, who had assumed the 
entire spiritual charge of the settlement, and who 
were soon to assume its entire temporal charge 
also, had for some years no other lodging than a 
room at the hospital, adjoining those of the patients. 
They caused the building to be fortified with pali- 
sades, and the houses of some of the chief inhabi- 
tants were placed near it, for mutual defence. They 
also built two fortified houses, called Ste. Marie and 
St. Gabriel, at the two extremities of the settle- 
ment, and lodged in them a considerable number 
of armed men, whom they employed in clearing 
and cultivating the surrounding lands, the property 



1667-61.1 PRODIGIES. 55 

of their community. All other outlying houses 
were also pierced with loopholes, and fortified as 
well as the slender means of their owners would 
permit. The laborers always carried their guns to 
the field, and often had need to use them. A few 
incidents will show the state of Montreal and the 
character of its tenants. 

In the autumn of 1657 there was a truce with 
the Iroquois, under cover of which three or four of 
them came to the settlement. Nicolas Gode and 
Jean Saint-Pere were on the roof of their house, 
laying thatch ; when one of the visitors aimed his 
arquebuse at Saint-Pere, and brought liim to the 
ground like a wild turkey from a tree. Now en- 
sued a prodigy ; for the assassins, having cut off 
his head and carried it home to their village, were 
amazed to hear it speak to them m good Iroquois, 
scold them for their perfidy, and threaten them 
with the vengeance of Heaven ; and they con- 
tinued to hear its voice of admonition even after 
scalping it and throwing away the skull.^ Tliis 
story, circulated at Montreal on the alleged au- 
thority of the Indians themselves, found beUevers 
among the most intelligent men of the colony. 

Another miracle, which occurred several years 
later, deserves to be recorded. Le Maitre, one of 
the two priests who had sailed from France with 
Mademoiselle Mance and her nuns, being one day at 
the fortified house of St. Gabriel, went out with the 
laborers, in order to watch while they were at their 
work. In view of a possible enemy, he had girded 

1 Dollier de Casson, Histoire du Montreal, 1657 1668. 



56 THE HOLY WAES OF MONTREAL. [1657-6' 

Jiimself with an earthly sword ; but seeing no sign 
of danger, he presently took out his breviary, and, 
while reciting his office with eyes bent on the 
page, walked into an ambuscade of Iroquois, who 
rose before him with a yell. 

He shouted to the laborers, and, drawing his 
sword, faced the whole savage crew, in order, prob- 
ably, to give the men time to snatch their guns. 
Afraid to approach, the Iroquois fired and killed 
him ; then rushed upon the working party, who 
escaped into the house, after losing several of their 
number. The victors cut off the head of the 
heroic priest, and tied it in a white handkerchief 
which they took from a pocket of his cassock. It 
is said that on reaching their villages they were 
astonished to find the handkerchief without the 
slightest stain of blood, but stamped indelibly with 
the features of its late owner, so plainly marked 
that none who had known him could fail to recog- 
nize them.^ This not very original miracle, though 
it found eager credence at Montreal, was received 
coolly, like other Montreal miracles, at Quebec ; 
and Sulpitian writers complain that the bishop, in 
a long letter which he wrote to the Pope, made no 
mention of it whatever. 

Le Maitre, on the voyage to Canada, had been 
accompanied by another priest, Guillaume de 
Vignal, who met a fate more deplorable than that 
of his companion, though unattended by any re- 

1 This story is told by Sister Morin, Marguerite Bourgeoys, and 

Dollier de Casson, on the authority of one Larigne, then a prisoner 

among the Iroquois, who declared that he had seen the handkerchief *« 
tlie hands of tlie returning warriors. 



.057-61. 1 DEATH OF VIGNAL. 57 

corded miracle. Le Maitre had been killed in 
August. In the October follomng, Vignal went 
with thirteen men, in a flat-boat and several canoes^ 
to Isle a la Pierre, nearly opposite Montreal, to get 
stone for the seminary which the priests had re- 
cently begun to build. With him was a pious and 
valiant gentleman named Claude de Brigeac, who, 
though but thirty years of age, had come as a sol- 
dier to Montreal, in the hope of dying in defence 
of the true church, and thus reaping the reward 
of a martyr. Vignal and three or four men had 
scarcely landed when they were set upon by a 
large band of Iroquois who lay among the bushes 
waiting to receive them. The rest of the party, 
who were still in their boats, with a cowardice rare 
at Montreal, thought only of saving themselves. 
Claude de Brigeac alone leaped ashore and ran 
to aid his comrades. Vignal was soon mortally 
wounded. Brigeac shot the chief dead with his 
arquebuse, and then, pistol in hand, held the whole 
troop for an instant at bay ; but his arm was shat- 
tered by a gun-shot, and he was seized, along with 
Vignal, Ren6 Cuillerier, and Jacques Dufresne. 
Crossing to the main shore, immediately opposite 
Montreal, the Iroquois made, after their custom, a 
small fort of logs and branches, in which they en- 
sconced themselves, and then began to dress the 
wounds of their prisoners. Seeing that Vignal was 
unable to make the journey to their villages, they 
killed him, divided his flesh, and roasted it for food. 
Brigeac and his fellows in misfortune spent a 
woful night in this den of wolves; and in the 



58 THE HOLY WARS OF MONTilEAL. [1657-61 

morning their captors, having breakfasted or the 
remains of Vignal, took up their homeward march, 
dragging the Frenchmen with them. On reaching 
Oneida, Brigeac was tortured to death with the 
customary atrocities. Cuillerier, who was present, 
declared that they could wring from him no cry of 
pain, but that throughout he ceased not to pray for 
their conversion. The witness himself expected the 
same fate, but an old squaw happily adopted him, 
and thus saved his life. He eventually escaped to 
Albany, and returned to Canada by the circuitous 
but comparatively safe route of New York and 
Boston. 

In the following winter, Montreal suffered an 
irreparable loss in the death of the brave Major 
Closse, a man whose intrepid coolness was never 
known to fail in the direst emergency. Going to 
the aid of a party of laborers attacked by the Iro- 
quois, he was met by a crowd of savages, eager to 
kill or capture him. His servant ran off. He 
snapped a pistol at the foremost assailant, but it 
missed fire. His remaining pistol served him no 
better, and he was instantly shot down "He 
died," writes DoUier de Casson, " hke a brave sol- 
dier of Christ and the king." Some of his friends 
once remonstrating with him on the temerity with 
which he exposed his life, he replied, " Messieurs, 
I came here only to die in the service of God ; and 
if I thought I could not die here, I would leave 
this country to fight the Turks, that I might not 
be deprived of such a glory." * 

1 DoUier de Casson, Histoii t du Montreal, 1661, 1662. 



1657-61.] A YEAR OF DISASTER. 59 

The fortified house of Ste. Marie, belonging to 
the priests of St. Sulpice, was the scene of several 
hot and bloody fights. Here, too, occurred the 
following nocturnal adventure. A man named 
Lavigne, who had lately returned from captivity 
among the Iroquois, chancing to rise at night and 
look out of the window, saw by the bright moon- 
light a number of naked warriors stealthily gliding 
round a corner and crouching near the door, in 
order to kill the first Frenchman who should go 
out in the morning. He silently woke his com- 
rades ; and, having the rest of the night for con- 
sultation, they arranged their plan so well, that 
some of them, sallying from the rear of the house, 
came cautiously round upon the Iroquois, placed 
them between two fires, and captured them all. 

The summer of 1661 was marked by a series of 
calamities scarcely paralleled even in the annals 
of this disastrous epoch. Early in February, thir- 
teen colonists were surprised and captured ; next 
came a fight between a large band of laborers and 
two hundred and sixty Iroquois ; in the following 
month, ten more Frenchmen were killed or taken ; 
and thenceforth, tiU winter closed, the settlement 
had scarcely a breathing space. " These hobgob- 
lins," writes the author of the Relation of this year, 
" sometimes appeared at the edge of the woods, 
assailing us with abuse ; sometimes they gUded 
stealthily into the midst of the fields, to surprise 
the men at work ; sometimes they approached 
the houses, harassing us without ceasing, and, 
like importunate harpies or birds of prey, swoop- 



60 THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL. 11657-ul. 

ing down on us whenever they could take us 
unawares." ^ 

Speaking of the disasters of this year, the sol- 
dier-priest, DoUier de Casson, writes : " God, who 
afflicts the body only for the good of the soul, 
made a marvellous use of these calamities and ter- 
rors to hold the people firm in their duty towards 
Heaven. Vice was then almost unknown here, and 
in the midst of war religion flourished on all sides in 
a manner very different from what we now see in 
time of peace." ^ 

The war was, in fact, a war of religion. The 
small redoubts of logs, scattered about the skirts 
of the settlement to serve as points of defence in 
case of attack, bore the names of saints, to whose 
care they were commended. There was one placed 
under a higher protection and called the Redoiibt 
of the Infant Jesus. Chomedey de Maisonneuve, 
the pious and valiant governor of Montreal, to 
whom its successful defence is largely due, re- 
solved, in view of the increasing fury and persist- 
ency of the Iroquois attacks, to form among the 
inhabitants a military fraternity, to be called 
" Soldiers of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and 
Joseph ; " and to this end he issued a proclama- 
tion, of which the following is the characteristic 
beginning : — 

" We, Paul de Chomedey, governor of the island 
of Montreal and lands thereon dependent, on in- 
formation given us from divers quarters that the 

» Le Jeune, Relation, 1661, p. 3 (ed. 1858). 
2 Histoire du Montreal. 1660, 1661. 



1657-61.1 A HOLY WAR. 61 

Iroquois have formed the design of seizing upon 
this settlement by surprise or force, have thought 
it our duty, seeing that this island is the property 
of the Holy Virgin,^ to invite and exhort those 
zealous for her service to unite together by squads, 
each of seven persons; and after choosing a cor- 
poral by a pluraUty of voices, to report themselves 
to us for enrolment in our garrison, and, in this 
capacity, to obey our orders, to the end that the 
country may be saved." 

Twenty squads, numbering in all one hundred 
and forty men, whose names, appended to the 
proclamation, may still be seen on the ancient 
records of Montreal, answered the appeal and en- 
rolled themselves in the holy cause. 

The whole settlement was in a state of religious 
exaltation. As the Iroquois were regarded as actual 
myrmidons of Satan in his mahgn warfare against 
Mary and her divine Son, those who died in fight- 
ing them were held to merit the reward of martys, 
assured of a seat in paradise. 

And now it remains to record one of the most 
heroic feats of arms ever achieved on this continent. 
That it may be rated as it merits, it will be well to 
glance for a moment at the condition of Canada, 
under the portentous cloud of war which constantly 
overshadowed it.^ 



1 This is no figure of speech. The Associates of Montreal, after 
receiving a grant of the island from Jean de Lauson, placed it under the 
protection of the Virgin, and formally declared her to be the proprietor 
of it from that day forth for ever. 

2 In all that relates to Montreal, I cannot be sufficiently grateful to 
the Abbe Faillon, the indefatigable, patient, conscientious chronicler of its 



62 THE HOLY WARS OF MONTREAL. [1657-61 

early history; an ardent and prejudiced Sulpitian, a priest who three 
centuries ago would have passed for credulous, and, withal, a kind- 
hearted and estimable man. His numerous books on his favorite 
theme, with the vast and heterogeneous mass of facts which, they 
embody, are invaluable, provided their partisan character be well kept 
in mind. His recent death leaves his principal work unfinished. His 
Histoire de la Colonie Frangaise en Canada — it might more fitly be called 
Eistoire du Montreal — is unhappily little more than half complete. 



CHAPTER m. 

1660, 1661. 

THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. 

Suffering and Terror. — Francois Hertel. — The Captive Wolp 
— The threatened Invasion. — Daulac des Ormeaux. — Thb 
Adventurers at the Long Saut. — The Attack. — ADespekatb 
Defence. — A Final Assault. — The Fort taken. 

Cajstada had writhed for twenty years, with Httle 
respite, under the scourge of Iroquois war. During 
a great part of this dark period the entire French 
population was less than three thousand. What, 
then, saved them from destruction? In the first 
place, the settlements were grouped around three 
fortified posts, Quebec, Three Eivers, and Montreal, 
which in time of danger gave asylum to the fugi- 
tive inhabitants. Again, their assailants were con- 
tinually distracted by other wars, and never, except 
at a few spasmodic intervals, were fully in earnest 
to destroy the French colony. Canada was indis- 
pensable to them. The four upper nations of the 
league soon became dependent on her for suppUes ; 
and aU the nations alike appear, at a very early 
period, to have conceived the policy on which they 
afterwards distinctly acted, of balancing the rival 
settlements of the Hudson and the St. Lawrence, 



64 THE nEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. [1660-61. 

the one against the other. They would torture, but 
not kill. It was but rarely that, in fits of fury, they 
struck their hatchets at the brain ; and thus the 
bleeding and gasping colony hngered on in torment. 

The seneschal of New France, son of the gov- 
ernor Lauson, was surprised and killed on the island 
of Orleans, along with seven companions. About 
the same time, the same fate befell the son of 
Godefroy, one of the chief inhabitants of Quebec. 
Outside the fortifications there was no safety for 
a moment. A universal terror seized the people. A 
comet appeared above Quebec, and they saw in it 
a herald of destruction. Their excited imagina- 
tions turned natural phenomena into portents and 
prodigies. A blazing canoe sailed across the sky ; 
confused cries and lamentations were heard in the 
air ; and a voice of thunder sounded from mid- 
heaven.^ The Jesuits despaired for their scattered 
and persecuted flocks. " Everywhere," writes their 
superior, " we see infants to be saved for heaven, 
eick and dying to be baptized, adults to be instructed, 
but everywhere we see the Iroquois. They harnit 
us like persec-uting gobhns. They kiU our new- 
made Christians in our arms. If they meet us on 
the river, they kill us. If they find us in the 
huts of our Indians, they burn us and them to- 
gether." ^ And he appeals urgently for troops to 
destroy them, as a holy work inspired by God, and 
needful for his service. 

Canada was still a mission, and the influence of 

1 Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre, Sept., 1661. 

2 Relation, 1660 (anonymous)j 3. 



.668.1 ARGENSON. QS) 

the church was paramount and pervading. At 
Quebec, as at Montreal, the war with the Iroquois 
was regarded as a war with the hosts of Satan. Of 
the settlers' cabins scattered along the shores above 
and below Quebec, many were provided with smaR 
u'on cannon, made probably by blacksmiths in the 
colony; but they had also other protectors. In 
each was an image of the Virgin or some patron 
saint, and every morning the pious settler knelt 
before the shrine to beg the protection of a celes- 
tial hand in his perilous labors of the forest or the 
farm. 

When, in the summer of 1658, the young Yi- 
comte d'Argenson came to assume the thankless 
task of governing the colony, the Iroquois war was 
at its height. On the day after his arrival, he was 
washing his hands before seating himself at dinner 
in the hall of the Chateau St. Louis, when cries of 
alarm were heard, and he was told that the Iroquois 
were close at hand. In fact, they were so near that 
their war-whoops and the screams of their victims 
could plainly be heard. Argenson left his guests, 
and, with such a following as he could muster at the 
moment, hastened to the rescue ; but the assailants 
were too nimble for him. The forests, which grew 
at that time around Quebec, favored them both in 
attack and in retreat. After a year or two of expe- 
rience, he wrote urgently to the court for troops. 
He adds that, what with the demands of the har- 
vest, and the unmilitary character of many of the 
settlers, the colony could not furnish more than a 
hundred men for offensive operations. A vigorous 



66 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. [1661 

aggressive war, he insists, is absolutely necessary, 
and this not only to save the colony, but to save 
the only true faith; "for," to borrow his own words, 
" it is this colony alone which has the honor to be 
in the communion of the Holy Church. Every- 
where else reigns the doctrine of England or Hol- 
land, to which I can give no other name, because 
there are as many creeds as there are subjects who 
embrace them. They do not care in the least 
whether the Iroquois and the other savages of this 
country have or have not a knowledge of the true 
God, or else they are so malicious as to inject the 
venom of their errors into souls incapable of dis- 
tinguishing the truth of the gospel from the false- 
hoods of heresy ; and hence it is plain that religion 
has its sole support in the French colony, and that, 
if this colony is in danger, religion is equally in 
danger." ^ 

Among the most interesting memorials of the time 
are two letters, written by FranQois Hertel, a youth 
of eighteen, captured at Three Rivers, and carried 
to the Mohawk towns in the summer of 1661. He 
belonged to one of the best families of Canada, and 
was the favorite child of his mother, to whom the 
second of the two letters is addressed. The first 
is to the Jesuit Le Moyne, who had gone to Onon- 
daga, in July of that year, to effect the release 
of French prisoners in accordance with the terms 
of a truce. ^ Both letters were written on birch 
bark : — 

1 Papiers d'Argenson ; M€moire sur le sujet de la pierre des Iroquois, 1650 
(1660?). MS. 

'^ Journal dss J€suites, 300. 



»661.^ FRANCOIS HERTEL. 67 

My Revkre^o) Father: — The very day when yon left 
Three Rivers I was captured, at about three in the afternoon, 
by four Iroquois of the Mohawk tribe. I would not have been 
taken alive, if, to my sorrow, I had not feared that I was not 
in a fit state to die. If you came here, my Father, I could 
have the happiness of confessing to you; and I do not think 
they would do you any harm ; and I think that I could return 
home with you. I pray you to pity my poor mother, who is 
in great trouble. You know, ray Father, how fond she is oi 
me. I have heard from a Frenchman, who was taken at 
Three Rivers on the 1st of August, that she is well, and com- 
forts herself with the hope that I shall see you. There are 
three of us Frenchmen alive here. I commend myself to your 
good prayers, and particularly to the Holy Sacrifice of the 
Mass. I pray you, my Father, to say a mass for me. I pray 
you give my dutiful love to my poor mother, and console her, 
if it pleases you. 

My Father, I beg your blessing on the hand that writes to 
you, which has one of the fingers burned in the bowl of 
an Indian pipe, to satisfy the Majesty of God which I have 
ufiended. The thumb of the other hand is cut off; but do 
not tell my mother of it. 

My Father, I pray you to honor me with a word from your 
hand in reply, and tell me if you shall come here before 
winter. 

Your most humble and most obedient servant, 

Francois Hbetel. 

The following is the letter to his mother, sent 
probably, with the other, to the charge of Le 
Moyne : — 

My most dear aistd honored Mother: — I know very 
well that my capture must have distressed you very nmch 
I ask you to forgive my disobedience. It is my sins that 
have placed me where I am. I owe my life to your prayers, 
and those of M. de Saint-Quentin, and of my sisters. I hope to 
see you again bef )re winter. I pray you to tell the good breth 



(58 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. 11660^ 

ren of Notre Dame to pray to God and the Holy Virgiii for me, 
my dear mother, and for you and all my sistei-s. 

Your poor 

Fanchon 

This, no doubt, was the name by which she had 
called him familiarly when a child. And who was 
this " Fanchon," this devout and tender son of a 
fond mother ? New England can answer to her cost. 
When, twenty-nine years later, a band of French 
and Indians issued from the forest and fell upon 
the fort and settlement of Salmon Falls, it was 
FranQois Hertel who led the attack ; and when the 
retiring victors were hard pressed by an over- 
whelming force, it was he who, sword in hand, held 
the pursuers in check at the bridge of Wooster 
River, and covered the retreat of his men. He 
was ennobled for his services, and died at the age 
of eighty, the founder of one of the most distin- 
guished families of Canada.^ To the New England 
of old he was the abhorred chief of Popish mahg- 
nants and murdering savages. The New England 
of to-day will be more just to the brave defender 
of his country and his faith. 

In May, 1660, a party of French Algonquins 
captured a Wolf, or Mohegan, Indian, naturahzed 
among the Iroquois, brought him to Quebec, and 
burned him there with their usual atrocity of tor- 
ture. A modern Cathohc writer says that the 
Jesuits could not save him; but this is not so. 
Their influence over the consciences of the colonists 

1 His letters of nobility, dated 1716, will be found in Daniel's Histoirt 
des Grandes Families Frangaises du Canada, 404. 



:6trX] THE WOLF BUKNED. (59 

wa . at that time unbounded, and their direct j)o- 
litik al power was very great. A protest on their 
pan, and that of the newly arrived bishop, wlio 
was in their interest, could not have failed of effect. 
The truth was, they did not care to prevent the 
torture of prisoners of war, not solely out of that 
spirit of compliance with the savage humor of 
Indian allies which stains so often the pages of 
French American history, but also, and perhaps 
chiefly, from motives purely religious. Torture, in 
their eyes, seems to have been a blessing in dis- 
guise. They thought it good for the soul, and in 
case of obduracy the surest way of salvation. " We 
have very rarely indeed," writes one of them, 
" seen the burning of an Iroquois without feehng 
sure that he was on the path to Paradise ; and we 
never knew one of them to be surely on the path 
to Paradise without seeing him pass through this 
fiery punishment." ^ So they let the Wolf burn ; 
but first, having instructed him after their fashion, 
they baptized him, and his savage soul flew to 
heaven out of the fire. " Is it not," pursues the 
same writer, " a marvel to see a wolf changed at 
one stroke into a lamb, and enter into the fold of 
Christ, which he came to ravage ? " 

Before he died he requited their spiritual cares 
with a startling secret. He told them that eight 
hundred Iroquois warriors were encamped below 
Montreal ; that four hundred more, who had win- 
tered on the Ottawa, were on the point of joining 
them ; and that the united force would swoop upon 

1 Relation, 1660, 31. 



70 THE HEEOES OF THE LONG SAUT. |166b 

Quebec, kill the governor, lay waste ^,he town, and 
then attack Three Rivers and Montreal.^ This 
time, at least, the Iroquois were in deadly earnest. 
Quebec was wild with terror. The Ursuhnes and 
the nuns of the HStel Dieu took refuge in the 
strong and extensive building which the Jesuits 
had just finished, opposite the Parish Church. Its 
walls and palisades made it easy of defence ; and 
in its yards and court were lodged the terrified 
Hurons, as well as the fugitive inhabitants of the 
neighboring settlements. Others found asylum in 
the fort, and others in the convent of the Ursulines, 
which, in place of nuns, was occupied by twenty- 
four soldiers, who fortified it with redoubts, and 
barricaded the doors and windows. Similar meas- 
ures of defence were taken at the Hotel Dieu, 
and the streets of the Lower Town were strongly 
barricaded. Everybody was in arms, and the 
Qui vive of the sentries and patrols resounded all 
night.^ 

Several days passed, and no Iroquois appeared. 
The refugees took heart, and began to return to 
their deserted farms and dwelHngs. Among the 
rest was a family consisting of an old woman, her 
daughter, her son-in-law, and four small children, 
living near St. Anne, some twenty miles below 
Quebec. On reaching home the old woman and 
the man went to their work in the fields, wliile 
the mother and children remained in the house. 

1 Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre, 25 Juin, 1660. 

2 On this alarm at Quebec compare Marie de I'lncarnation, 25 Jiiin^ 
1660 ; Relation, 1660, 5 ; Juchereau, Histoire de I'Hdtel-Dieu de Quebec, 126 
and Journal des J€suites 282. 



1560. 1 THE CAPTORS CAPTURED. 71 

Here they were pounced upon and captured b_y 
eight renegade Hurons, Iroquois by adoption, who 
placed them in their large canoe, and paddled up 
the river with their prize. It was Saturday, a day 
dedicated to the Virgin ; and the captive mother 
prayed to her for aid, " feeling," writes a Jesuit, 
" a full conviction that, in passing before Quebec 
on a Saturday, she would be delivered by the power 
of this Queen of Heaven." In fact, as the ma- 
rauders and their captives glided in the darkness 
of night by Point Levi, under the shadow of the 
shore, they were greeted with a volley of musketry 
from the bushes, and a band of French and Algon- 
quins dashed into the water to seize them. Five 
of the eight were taken, and the rest shot or 
drowned. The governor had heard of the descent 
at St. Anne, and despatched a party to lie in am- 
bush for the authors of it. The Jesuits, it is need- 
less to say, saw a miracle in the result. The Virgin 
had answered the prayer of her votary. " Though 
it is true," observes the father who records the 
marvel, " that, in the voUey, she received a mortal 
wound." The same shot struck the infant in her 
arms. The prisoners were taken to Quebec, where 
four of them were tortured with even more ferocit}' 
than had been shown in the case of the unfortunate 
Wolf .^ Being questioned, they confirmed his story, 

1 The torturers were Christian Algonquins, converts of the Jesuits. 
Chaumonot, who was present to give spiritual aid to the sufferers, de- 
Bcribes the scene with horrible minuteness. "I could not," he says, 
" deliver them from their torments." Perhaps not : but it is certain that 
the Jesuits as a body, with or without the bishop, could have prevented 
the atrocity, had they seen fit. They sometimes taught their (;ouverts ta 



72 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. [1560 

and expressed great surprise that tlie Iroquois? had 
not come, adding that they must have stopped to 
attack Montreal or Three Rivers. Again all was 
terror, and again days passed and no enemy 
appeared. Had the dying converts, so charitably 
despatched to heaven through fire, sought an un- 
liallowed consolation in scaring the abettors of their 
torture with a lie ? Not at all. Bating a slight 
exaggeration, they had told the truth. Where, 
then, were the Iroquois ? As one smaU point of 
steel disarms the hghtning of its terrors, so did the 
heroism of a few intrepid youths divert this storm 
of war and save Canada from a possible ruin. 

In the preceding April, before the designs of 
the Iroquois were known, a young officer named 
Daulac, commandant of the garrison of Montreal, 
asked leave of Maisonneuve, the governor, to lead 
a party of volunteers against the enemy. His plan 
was bold to desperation. It was known that Iro- 
quois warriors in great numbers had wintered 
among the forests of the Ottawa. Daulac proposed 
to waylay them on their descent of the river, and 
fight them without regard to disparity of force. 
The settlers of Montreal had hitherto acted solely 
on the defensive, for their numbers had been too 
small for aggressive war. Of late their strength 
had been somewhat increased, and Maisonneuve, 
judging that a display of enterprise and boldness 

pray for their enemies. It would have been well had thej"^ taught them 
not to torture them. I can recall but one instance in which they did so. 
The prayers for enemies were always for a spiritual, not a temporal good. 
The fathers held the body in slight account and cared little what hap 
poned to it 



^d60.j DAULAC DES ORMEAUX. 73 

might act as a check on the audacity of the enemy, 
at length gave his consent. 

Adam Daulac, or Bollard, Sieur des Ormeaux, 
was a young man of good family, who had come 
to the colony three years before, at the age of 
twenty-two. He had held some military command 
in France, though in what rank does not appear. 
It was said that he had been involved in some 
affair which made him anxious to wipe out the 
memory of the past by a no^*>worthy exploit ; and 
he had been busy for some time among the young 
men of Montreal, inviting them to join him in the 
enterprise he meditated. Sixteen of them caught 
his spirit, struck hands with him, and pledged their 
word. They bound themselves by oath to accept 
no quarter; and, having gained Maisonneuve's 
consent, they made their wills, confessed, and 
received the sacraments. As they knelt for the 
last time before the altar in the chapel of the 
HStel Dieu, that sturdy little population of pious 
Indian-fighters gazed on them with enthusiasm, not 
unmixed with an envy which had in it nothing 
ignoble. Some of the chief men of Montreal, with 
the brave Charles Le Moyne at their head, begged 
them to wait till the spring sowing was over, that 
they might join them ; but Daulac refused. He 
was jealous of the glory and the danger, and he 
wished to command, which he could not have done 
had Le Moyne been present. 

The spirit of the enterprise was purely mediasval. 
The enthusiasm of honor, the enthusiasm of adven- 
ture, and the enthusiasm of faith, were its motive 



74 THE HEKOES OF THE LONG SAUT. [1660 

forces. Daiilac was a knight of the early crusades 
among the forests and savages of the New World. 
Yet the incidents of this exotic heroism are definite 
and clear as a tale of yesterday. The names, ages, 
and occupations of the seventeen young men may 
still be read on the ancient register of the parish 
of Montreal; and the notarial acts of that year, 
pi eserved in the records of the city, contain minute 
accounts of such property as each of them possessed. 
The three eldest were of twenty-eight, thirty, and 
thirty-one years respectively. The age of the rest 
varied from twenty-one to twenty-seven. They 
were of various callings, — soldiers, armorers, lock- 
smiths, lime-burners, or settlers without trades. 
The greater number had come to the colony as 
part of the reinforcement brought by Maisonneuve 
in 1653. 

After a solemn farewell they embarked in sev- 
eral canoes well supphed with arms and ammuni- 
tion. They were very indifferent canoe-men ; and 
it is said that they lost a week in vain attempts to 
pass the swift current of St. Anne, at the head of 
the island of Montreal. At length they were more 
successful, and entering the mouth of the Ottawa, 
crossed the Lake of Two Mountains, and slowly 
advanced against the current. 

Meanwhile, forty warriors of that remnant of the 
Hurons who, in spite of Iroquois p^seciitions, stUl 
lingered at Quebec, had set out on a war-party, led 
by the brave and wily Etienne Annahotaha, tlieir 
most noted chief. They stopped by the way at 
Three Rivers, where they found a band of Christian 



1660.] INDIAN ALLIES. 75 

Algoiiquins under a chief named Mituvemeg An^ 
nahotaha challenged him to a trial of courage, and 
it was agreed that they should meet at Montreal, 
where they were likely to find a speedy oppor- 
tunity of putting their mettle to the test. Thither, 
accordingly, they repaired, the Algonquin with 
three followers, and the Huron with thirty-nine. 

It was not long before they learned the departure 
of Daulac and his companions. " For," observes 
the honest DoUier de Casson, " the principal fault 
of our Frenchmen is to talk too much." The wish 
seized them to share the adventure, and to that 
end the Huron chief asked the governor for a letter 
to Daulac, to serve as credentials. Maisonneuve 
hesitated. His faith in Huron valor was not great, 
and he feared the proposed alliance. Nevertheless, 
he at length yielded so far as to give Annahotaha 
a letter in which Daulac was told to accept or reject 
the proffered reinforcement as he should see fit. 
The Hurons and Algonquins now embarked and 
paddled in pursuit of the seventeen Frenchmen. 

They meanwhile had passed with difficulty tho 
swift current at Carillon, and about the first of 
May reached the foot of the more formidable rapid 
called the Long Saut, where a tumult of waters, 
foaming among ledges and boulders, barred the 
onward way. It was needless to go farther. The 
Iroquois were sure to pass the Saut, and could be 
fought here as well as elsewhere. Just below the 
rapid, where the forests sloped gently to the shore, 
among the bushes and stumps of the rough clearing 
made in constructing it, stood a palisade fort, the 



76 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SADT. 1I66O 

work of an Algonquin war-party in the past autumn. 
It was a mere enclosure of triuiks of small trees 
planted in a circle, and was already ruinous. Sach 
as it was, the Frenchmen took possession of it. 
Their first care, one would think, should have been 
to repair and strengthen it ; but this they seem 
not to have done : possibly, in the exaltation of 
their minds, they scorned such 'precaution. They 
made their fires, and slung their kettles on the 
neighboring shore ; and here they were soon joined 
by the Hurons and Algonquins. Daulac, it seems, 
made no objection to their company, and they all 
bivouacked together. Morning and noon and night 
they prayed in three different tongues ; and when 
at sunset the long reach of forests on the farther 
shore basked peacefully in the level rays, the rapids 
joined their hoarse music to the notes of their even- 
ing hymn. 

In a day or two their scouts came in with tidings 
that two Iroquois canoes were coming down the 
Saut. Daulac had time to set his men in ambush 
among the bushes at a point where he thought the 
strangers hkely to land. He judged aright. The 
canoes, bearing five Iroquois, approached, and were 
met by a volley fired with such precipitation that 
one or more of them escaped the shot, fled into the 
forest, and told their mischance to their main body, 
two hundred in number, on the river above. A 
fleet of canoes suddenly appeared, bounding down 
the rapids, fiUed with warriors eager for revenge. 
The allies had barely time to escape to their fort, 
leaving their kettles still slung over the fires. The 



iGbO.l THE FORT ATTACKED. 77 

Iroquois made a hasty and desultory attack, and 
were quickly repulsed. They next opened a parley, 
hoping, no doubt, to gain some advantage by sur- 
prise. Failing in this, they set themselves, after 
their custom on such occasions, to building a rude 
fort of their own in the neighboring forest. 

This gave the French a breathing-time, and they 
used it for strengthening their defences. Being 
provided with tools, they planted a row of stakes 
Avithin their pahsade, to form a double fence, and 
filled the intervening space with earth and stones 
to the height of a man, leaving some twenty loop- 
holes, at each of which three marksmen were sta- 
tioned. Their work was still unfinished when the 
Iroquois were upon them again. They had broken 
to pieces the birch canoes of the French and their 
alhes, and, kindling the bark, rushed up to pile it 
blazing against the paHsade ; but so brisk and steady 
a fire met them that they recoiled and at last gave 
way. They came on again, and again were driven 
back, leaving many of their number on the ground, 
among them the principal chief of the Senecas. 
Some of the French dashed out, and, covered by 
the fire of their comrades, hacked off his head, and 
stuck it on the paHsade, while the Iroquois howled 
in a frenzy of helpless rage. They tried another 
attack, and were beaten off a third time. 

This dashed their spirits, and they sent a canoe to 
call to their aid five hundred of their warriors who 
were mustered near the mouth of the Richelieu. 
These were the allies whom, but for this untoward 
check, they were on their way to join for a com 



78 TLIE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. [166Q 

bined attack on Quebec, Three Rivers, and Mon- 
treal. It was maddening to see their grand project 
thwarted by a few French and Indians ensconced 
in a paltry redoubt, scarcely better than a cattle- 
pen ; but they were forced, to digest the affront as 
best they might. 

Meanwhile, crouched behind trees and logs, they 
beset the fort, harassing its defenders day and night 
with a spattering fire and a constant menace of 
attack. Thus five days passed. Hunger, thirst, 
and want of sleep wrought fatally on the strength 
of the French and their alhes, who, pent up to- 
gether in their narrow prison, fought and prayed 
by turns. Deprived as they were of water, they 
could not swallow the crushed Indian corn, or 
" hominy," which was their only food. Some of 
them, under cover of a brisk fire, ran down to the 
river and filled such small vessels as they had ; but 
this pittance only tantalized their thirst. They dug 
a hole in the fort, and were rewarded at last by a 
little muddy water oozing through the clay. 

Among the assailants were a number of Hurons, 
adopted by the Iroquois and fighting on their side. 
These renegades now shouted to their countrymen 
in the fort, telling them that a fresh army was 
close at hand ; that they would soon be attacked 
by seven or eight hundred warriors ; and that their 
only hope was in joining the Iroquois, who would 
receive them as friends. Annahotaha's followers, 
half dead with thirst and famine, Hstened to their 
seducers, took the bait, and, one, two, or three at 
a time, climbed the palisade and ran over to the 



1660. J THE REINFOE CEMENT. 79 

enemy, amid the hootings and execrations of those 
whom they deserted. Their chief stood firm ; and 
when he saw his nephew, La Mouche, join the other 
fugitives, he fired his pistol at him in a rage. The 
four Algonquins, who had no mercy to hope for^ 
stood fast, with the courage of despair. 

On the fifth day an uproar of unearthly yells 
from seven hundred savage throats, mingled with 
a clattering salute of musketry, told the French- 
men that the expected reinforcement had come; 
and soon, in the forest and on the clearing, a crowd 
of warriors mustered for the attack. Knowing 
from the Huron deserters the weakness of their 
enemy, they had no doubt of an easy victory. They 
advanced cautiously, as was usual with the Iroquois 
before their blood was up, screeching, leaping from 
side to side, and firing 'is they came on ; but the 
French were at their posts, and every loophole 
darted its tongue of fire. Besides muskets, they 
had heavy musketoons of large calibre, which, scat- 
tering scraps of lead and iron among the throng of 
savages, often maimed several of them at one dis- 
charge. The Iroquois, astonished at the persistent 
^dgor of the defence, fell back discomfited. The fire 
of the French, who were themselves completely 
under cover, had told upon them with deadly effect. 
Three days more wore away in a series of futile 
attacks, made with little concert or vigor; and 
during all this time Daulac and his men, reeling 
with exhaustion, fought and jj^rayed as before, sure 
of a martyr's reward. 

The uncertain, vacillating temper common to aU 



80 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. |166U 

Indians now began to declare itself. Some of the 
Iroquois were for going home. Others revolted at 
the thought, and declared that it would be an 
eternal disgrace to lose so many men at the hands 
of so paltry an enemy, and yet fail to take revenge. 
It was resolved to make a general assault, and vol- 
unteers were called for to lead the attack. After 
the custom on such occasions, bundles of small 
sticks were thrown upon the ground, and those 
picked them up who dared, thus accepting the 
gage of battle, and enrolhng themselves in the 
forlorn hope. No precaution was neglected. Large 
and heavy shields four or five feet high were made 
by lashing together three spht logs with the aid of 
cross-bars. Covering themselves with these man- 
telets, the chosen band advanced, followed by the 
motley throng of warriors. In spite of a brisk fire, 
they reached the palisade, and, crouching below 
the range of shot, hewed furiously with their 
hatchets to cut their way through. The rest fol- 
lowed close, and swarmed like angry hornets 
around the little fort, hacking and tearing to 
get in. 

Daulac had crammed a large musketoon with 
powder, and plugged up the muzzle. Lighting the 
fuse inserted in it, he tried to throw it over the bar- 
rier, to burst like a grenade among the crowd of 
savages without ; but it struck the ragged top of 
one of the palisades, fell back among the French- 
men and exploded, killing and wounding several 
of them, and nearly blinding others. In the con- 
fusion that followed, the Iroquois got possession of 



1660. J THE FORT TAKEM. 81 

the loopholes, and, thrusting in their guns, fired on 
those witliin. In a moment more they had torn a 
breach in the palisade ; but, nerved with the energy 
of desperation, Daulac and his followers sprang to 
defend it. Another breach was made, and then 
another. Daulac was struck dead, but the sur- 
vivors kept up the fight. With a sword or a 
hatchet in one hand and a knife in the other, they 
threw themselves against the throng of enemies, 
striking and stabbing with the fury of madmen ; 
till the Iroquois, despairing of taking them alive, 
fired volley after volley and shot them down. All 
was over, and a burst of triumphant yells pro- 
claimed the dear-bought victory. 

Searching the pile of corpses, the victors found 
four Frenchmen still breathing. Three had scarcely 
a spark of life, and, as no time was to be lost, they 
burned them on the spot. The fourth, less for- 
tunate, seemed hkely to survive, and they reserved 
him for future torments. As for the Huron de- 
serters, their cowardice profited them little. The 
toquois, regardless of their promises, fell upon them, 
burned some at once, and carried the rest to their 
villages for a similar fate. Five of the number had 
the good fortune to escape, and it was from them, 
aided by admissions made long afterwards by the 
Iroquois themselves, that the French of Canada 
derived all their knowledge of this glorious disaster.^ 

1 When the fugitive Hurons reached Montreal, they were unwilling 
to confess their desertion of the French, and declared that they and some 
others of their people, to the number of fourteen, had stood by them to 
the last. This was the story told by one of them to the Jesuit Chaumo- 
not, and by him communicated in a letter to his friends at Quebec The 

6 



82 THE HEROES OF THE LONG SAUT. [1660. 

To the colony it proved a salvation. The Iro- 
quois had had fighting enough. If seventeen 
Frenchmen, four Algonquins, and one Huron, be- 
hind a picket fence, could hold seven hundred war- 
riors at bay so long, what might they expect from 
many such, fighting behind walls of stone ? For 
that year they thought no more of capturing Quebec 
and Montreal, but went home dejected and amazed, 
to howl over their losses, and nurse their dashed 
courage for a day of vengeance. 

substance of this letter is given by Marie de I'lncarnation, in her letter to 
her son of June 25, 1660. The Jesuit Relation of tliis year gives another 
long account of tlie afi'air, also derived from the Huron deserters, who 
tliis time only pretended that ten of their number remained with the 
French. They afterwards admitted that all had deserted but Annalio- 
taha, as appears from the account drawn up by DoUier de Casson, in his 
Histoire du Montreal. Another contemporary, Belmont, who heard the 
story from an Iroquois, makes tlie same statement. All tliese writers, 
though two of them were not friendly to Montreal, agree that Daulac 
and his followers saved Canada from a disastrous invasion. The gov- 
ernor, Argenson, in a letter written on the fourth of July following, 
and in his M^nioire sur le sujet de la guerre des Iroquois, expresses the same 
conviction. Before me is an extract, copied from the Petit Registre de la 
Cure de Montreal, giving the names and ages of Daulac's men. The 
Abbe Faillon took extraordinary pains to collect all the evidence touch- 
ing this aifair. See his Histoire de la Colonie FranQaise, II. chap. xv. 
Charlevoix, very little tc his credit, passes it over in silence, not being 
partial to Montreal. 



CHAPTER rV. 

1657-1668. 

THE DISPUTED BISHOPKIC. 

Domestic Strife. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Abbe Quetlub. — 
Francois de Laval. — The Zealots of Caen. — Gallican ane 
Ultramontane. — The Rival Claimants. — Storm at Quebec 
— Laval Triumphant. 

Canada, gasping under the Iroquois tomahawk, 
might, one would suppose, have thought her cup of 
tribulation full, and, sated with inevitable woe, have 
sought consolation from the wrath without in a 
noly calm within. Not so, however ; for while the 
heatlien raged at the door, discord rioted at the 
hearthstone. Her domestic quarrels were wonder- 
ful in number, diversity, and bitterness. There was 
the standing quarrel of Montreal and Quebec, the 
quarrels of priests with each other, of priests 
with the governor, and of the governor Avith the 
intendant, besides ceaseless wranglings of rival 
traders and rival peculators. 

Some of these disputes were local and of no 
special significance; while others are very inter- 
esting, because, on a remote and obscure theatre, 
they represent, sometimes in striking forms, the 



84 THE DISPUTED BISHOPEIC. [1657 

contending passions and principles of a most im- 
portant epoch of history. To begin with one 
which even to this day has left a root of bitter- 
ness behind it. 

The association of pious enthusiasts who had 
founded MontreaP was reduced in 1657 to a rem- 
nant of five or six persons, whose ebbing zeal and 
overtaxed purses were no longer equal to the de- 
vout but arduous enterprise. They begged the 
priests of the Seminary of St. Sulpice to take it o££ 
their hands. The priests consented ; and, though the 
conveyance of the island of Montreal to these its 
new proprietors did not take effect till some years 
later, four of the Sulpitian fathers, Queylus, Souart, 
Galinee, and Allot, came out to the colony and 
took it in charge. Thus far Canada had had no 
bishop, and the Sulpitians now aspired to give it 
one from their own brotherhood. Many years 
before, when the RecoUets had a foothold in the 
colony, they too, or at least some of them, had cher- 
ished the hope of giving Canada a bishop of their 
own.^ As for the Jesuits, who for nearly thirty 
years had of themselves constituted the Canadian 
church, they had been content thus far to dispense 
with a bishop ; for, having no rivals in the field, 
they had felt no need of episcopal support. 

The Sulpitians put forward Queylus as their 
candidate for the new bishopric. The assembly 
of French clergy approved, and Cardinal Mazaria 

1 See Jesuits in North America, chap. xv. 

2 M^moire quifaict pour I'affaire des P.P. Recollects de la prouhce de St. 
Denys ditte de Paris touchant le droict qu'ils ont depuis Van 1615, d'aller en 
Qjuanada soi^s I'authoriti de Sa Maiest€, etc. 1637. 



ItJoT.J JESUIT AND SULPITIAN. 85 

himself seemed to sanction, the nomination. The 
Jesuits saw that their time of action was come. If 
was they who had borne the heat and burden of 
the day, the toils, privations, and martyrdoms, while 
as yet the Sulpitians had done nothing and en- 
dured nothing. If any body of ecclesiastics was 
to have the nomination of a bishop, it clearly be- 
longed to them, the Jesuits. Their might, too, 
matched their right. They were strong at court ; 
Mazarin withdrew his assent, and the Jesuits were 
invited to name a bishop to their liking. 

Meanwhile the Sulpitians, despairing of the bish- 
opric, had sought their solace elsewhere. Ships 
bound for Canada had usually sailed from ports 
within the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Rouen, 
and the departing missionaries had received their 
ecclesiastical powers from him, till he had learned 
to regard Canada as an outlying section of his dio- 
cese. Not unwilling to assert his claims, he now 
made Queylus his vicar-general for all Canada, 
thus clothing him with episcopal powers, and plac- 
ing him over the heads of the Jesuits. Queylus, 
in effect, though not in name, a bishop, left his 
companion Souart in the spiritual charge of Mon- 
treal, came down to Quebec, announced his new 
dignity, and assumed the curacy of the parish. 
The Jesuits received him at first with their usual 
urbanity, an exercise of self-control rendered more 
easy by their knowledge that one more potent than 
Queylus would soon arrive to supplant him.^ 

1 A detailed account of the experiences of Queylus at Quebec, imme- 
diately after his arrival, as related by himself, will be found in a memoir 



86 THE DISPUTED BISHOPEIC [16t> . 

The vicar of the Archbishop of Rouen was a 
man of many virtues, devoted to good works, as 
he understood them; rich, for the Sulpitians were 
under no vow of poverty ; generous in alms- 
giving, busy, indefatigable, overflowing with zeal, 
vivacious in temperament and excitable in temper, 
impatient of opposition, and, as it seems, incapable, 
hke his destined rival, of seeing any way of doing 
good but his own. Though the Jesuits were out- 
wardly courteous, their partisans would not hsten 
to the new cure's sermons, or listened only to find 
fault, and germs of discord grew vigorously in the 
parish of Quebec. Prudence was not among the 
virtues of Queylus. He launched two sermons 
against the Jesuits, in which he hkened himself 
to Christ and them to the Pharisees. " Who," he 
supposed them to say, " is this Jesus, so beloved of 
the people, who comes to cast discredit on us, who 
for thirty or forty years have governed church and 
state here, with none to dispute us ? " ^ He de- 
nounced such of his hearers as came to pick flaws 
in his discourse, and told them it would be better 
for their souls if they lay in bed at home, sick of 
a " good quartan fever." His ire was greatly kin- 
dled by a letter of the Jesuit Pijart, which fell into 
his hands through a female adherent, the pious 

by the Sulpitian Allet, in Morale Pratique des J€smtes, XXXIV. chap. 
xii. In chapter ten of the same rolume the writer says that he visited 
Queylus at Mont St. Vale'rien, after his return from Canada. " II me 
prit a part ; nous nous promenSmes assez longtemps dans le jardin et il 
m'ouvrit son coeur sur la conduite des Je'suites dans le Canada et partout 
ailltiurs Messieurs de St. Sulpice savent bien ce qu'il m'en a pu dire, et je 
8uis assure qu'ils ne diront pas que je I'ai dfl prendre pour des mensonges.'' 
* Journal des J€suites, Oct., 1667. 



1657.1 LAVAL. 87 

Madame d'Aillebout, and in which that father de- 
clared that he, Queylus, was waging war on him 
and his brethren more savagely than the Iroquois.' 
" He ivas as crazy at sight of a Jesuit," writes an 
adverse biographer, " as a mad dog at sight of 
water." '^ He cooled, however, on being shown 
certain papers which proved that his position was 
neither so strong nor so secure as he had supposed ; 
and the governor, Argenson, at length persuaded 
him to retire to Montreal.^ 

The queen mother, Anne of Austria, always in- 
clined to the Jesuits, had invited Father Le Jeune, 
who was then in France, to make choice of a bishop 
for Canada. It was not an easy task. No Jesuit 
was eligible, for the sage policy of Loyola had ex- 
cluded members of the order from the bishopric. 
The signs of the times portended trouble for the 
Canadian church, and there was need of a bishop 
who would assert her claims and fight her battles. 
Such a man could not be made an instrument of 
the Jesuits ; therefore there was double need that 
he should be one with them in sympathy and 
purpose. They made a sagacious choice. Le 
Jeune presented to the queen mother the name 
of Francois Xavier de Laval-Montmorency, Abbe 
de Montigny. 

Laval, for by this name he was thenceforth 
known, belonged to one of the proudest famihes 
of Europe, and, churchman as he was, there is 

1 Journal des J€suites, Oct., 1657. 

2 Viger, Notice Historique sur l'Ahb€ de Queylus. 
' PapiiTS d' Argenson. 



88 THE DISPUTED BISHOPEld ri657 

inucli in his career to remind us that in his veina 
ran the blood of the stern Constable of France, 
Anne de Montmorency. Nevertheless, his thoughts 
from childhood had turned towards the church, or, 
as his biographers will have it, all his aspirations 
were heavenward. He received the tonsure at the 
age of nine. The Jesuit Bagot confirmed and 
moulded his youthful predilections ; and, at a later 
period, he was one of a band of young zealots, 
formed under the auspices of Bernieres de Lou- 
vigni, royal treasurer at Caen, who, though a lay- 
man, was reputed almost a saint. It was Bernieres 
who had borne the chief part in the pious fraud of 
the pretended marriage through which Madame de 
la Peltrie escaped from her father's roof to become 
foundress of the Ursuhnes of Quebec.^ He had 
since renounced the world, and dwelt at Caen, in a 
house attached to an Ursuline convent, and known 
as the Hermitage. Here he lived Hke a monk, in 
the midst of a community of young priests and 
devotees, who looked to liim as their spiritual direc- 
tor, and whom he trained in the maxims and prac- 
tices of the most extravagant, or, as his admirers 
say, the most sublime ultramontane piety .^ 

The conflict between the Jesuits and the Jan- 
senists was then at its height. The Jansenist doc- 
trines of election and salvation by grace, which 
sapped the power of the priesthood and impugned 
the authority of the Pope himself in his capacity 
of holder of the keys of heaven, were to the Jesuits 

1 See Jesuits in North America, cliap. xir. 

2 La Tour, Vie di Laved, gives his maxims at length. 



:6r,;-G2.] THE HERMITAGE OF CAEN. 89 

an abomination ; wMle the rigid morals of the Jan- 
senists stood in stern contrast to the phancy of 
Jesuit casuistry. Bernieres and his disciples were 
zealouSj not to say fanatical, partisans of the Jesuits. 
There is a long account of the " Hermitage " and 
its inmates from the pen of the famous Jansenist, 
Nicole ; an opponent, it is true, but one whose 
qualities of mind and character give weight to his 
testimony.^ 

" In this famous Hermitage," says Nicole, " the 
late Sieur de Bernieres brought up a number of 
young men, to whom he taught a sort of sublime 
and transcendental devotion called passive prayer, 
because in it the mind does not act at all, but 
merely receives the divine operation ; and this 
devotion is the source of all those visions and reve ■ 
lations in which the Hermitage is so prolific." In 
short, he and his disciples were mystics of the most 
exalted type. Nicole pursues : " After having thus 
subtilized their minds, and almost sublimed them 
into vapor, he rendered them capable of detecting 
Jansenists under any disguise, insomuch that some 
of his followers said that they knew them by the 
scent, as dogs know their game ; but the aforesaid 
Sieur de Bernieres denied that they had so subtile 
a sense of smell, and said that the mark by which 
he detected Jansenists was their disapproval of his 
teachings or their opposition to the Jesuits." 

The zealous band at the Hermitage was aided in 

1 M^moire pour faire connoistre I'esprit et la conduite de la Compagmt 
€taUie en la ville de Caen, appellee I' Hermitage (Biblioth^que NatiDnale 
Imprimes Partie Reserv^e). Written in 1660. 



90 THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC. [1657-62 

its efforts to extirpate error by a sort of external 
association in the city of Caen, consisting of mer- 
chants, priests, officers, petty nobles, and others, 
all inspired and guided by Bernieres. They met 
every week at the Hermitage, or at the houses of 
each other. Similar associations existed in other 
cities of France, besides a fraternity in the Rue 
St. Dominique at Paris, which was formed by the 
Jesuit Bagot, and seems to have been the parent, 
in a certain sense, of the others. They all acted 
together when any important object was in view. 

Bernieres and his disciples felt that God had 
chosen them not only to watch over doctrine and 
discipline in convents and in families, but also to 
supply the prevalent deficiency of zeal in bishops 
and other dignitaries of the church. They kept, too, 
a constant eye on the humbler clergy, and when- 
ever a new preacher appeared in Caen, two of their 
number were deputed to hear his sermon and report 
upon it. If he chanced to let fall a word concern- 
ing the grace of God, they denounced him for Jan- 
senistic heresy. Such commotion was once raised 
in Caen by charges of sedition and Jansenism, 
brought by the Hermitage against priests and lay- 
men hitherto without attaint, that the Bishop of 
Bayeux thought it necessary to interpose ; but even 
he was forced to pause, daunted by the insinuations 
of Bernieres that he was in secret sympathy with 
the obnoxious doctrines. 

Thus the Hermitage and its affiliated societies 
constituted themselves a sort f>i inquisition in the 
interest of the Jesuits; "for what," asks Nicole 



I657-62.] THE ZEALOTS AT CAEN. 91 

" might not be expected from persons of weak minds 
and atrabilious dispositions, dried up by constant 
fasts, vigils, and other austerities, besides medita- 
tions of three or four hours a day, and told con- 
tinually that the church is in imminent danger of 
ruin through the machinations of the Jansenists, 
who are represented to them as persons who wish 
to break up the foundations of the Christian faith 
and subvert the mystery of the Incarnation ; who 
beheve neither in transubstantiation, the invocation 
of saints, nor indulgences ; who wish to abolish the 
sacrifice of the Mass and the sacrament of Penitence, 
oppose the worship of the Holy Virgin, deny free- 
will and substitute predestination in its place, and, 
in fine, conspire to overthrow the authority of the 
Supreme Pontiff." 

Among other anecdotes, Nicole tells the follow- 
ing : One of the young zealots of the Hermitage 
took it into his head that all Caen was full of Jan- 
senists, and that the cur^s of the place were in league 
with them. He inoculated four others with this 
notion, and they resolved to warn the people of 
their danger. They accordingly made the tour of 
the streets, without hats or collars, and with coats 
unbuttoned, though it was a cold winter day, stop- 
ping every moment to proclaim in a loud voice 
that all the cur6s, excepting two, whom they named, 
were abettors of the Jansenists. A mob was soon 
following at their heels, and there was great excite- 
ment. The magistrates chanced to be in session, 
and, hearing of the disturbance, they sent consta- 
bles to arrest the authors of it. Being brought to 



92 THE DISPUTED BISHOPEIC. [1657-62 

the bar of justice and questioned by the judge, they 
answered that they were doing the work of God, 
and were ready to die in the cause ; that Caen was 
full of Jansenists, and that the cures had declared 
in iheir favor, inasmuch as they denied any knowl- 
edge of their existence. Four of the five were 
locked up for a few days, tried, and sentenced to 
a fine of a hundred hvres, with a promise of further 
punishment should they again disturb the peace .^ 

The fifth, being pronounced out of his wits by 
the physicians, was sent home to his mother, at a 
village near Argentan, where two or three of his 
fellow zealots presently joined him. Among them, 
they persuaded his mother, who had hitherto been 
devoted to household cares, to exchange them for 
a life of mystical devotion. " These three or four 
persons," says Nicole, " attracted others as imbecile 
as themselves." Among these recruits were a num- 
ber of women, and several priests. After various 
acts of fanaticism, " two or three days before last 
Pentecost," proceeds the narrator, " they all set 
out, men and women, for Argentan. The priests 
had drawn the skirts of their cassocks over their 
heads, and tied them about their necks with twisted 
straw. Some of the women had their heads bare, 
and their hair streaming loose over their shoulders. 
They picked up filth on the road, and rubbed their 
faces with it, and the most zealous ate it, saying 
that it was necessary to mortify the taste. Some 

1 Nicole is not tlie only authority for this story. It is also told by a 
very diflferent writer. See Notice Ristorique de I'Abbaye de Ste. Clairt 
d' Argentan, 124, 



l557-6ilj MOKE EXTRAVAGANCE. ' 93 

held stones in their hands, which they knocked 
together to draw the attention of the passers-by. 
They had a leader, whom they were bound to obey ; 
and when this leader saw any mud-hole particularly 
deep and dirty, he commanded some of the party 
to roll themselves in it, which they did forthwith.^ 

" After this fashion, they entered the town of 
Argentan, and marched, two by two, through all 
the streets, crying with a loud voice that the Faith 
was perishing, and that whoever wished to save it 
must quit the country and go with them to Canada, 
whither they were soon to repair. It is said that 
they still hold this purpose, and that their leaders 
declare it revealed to them that they will find a 
vessel ready at the first port to which Providence 
directs them. The reason why they choose Canada 
for an asylum is, that Monsieur de Montigny 
{Laval), Bishop of Petrsea, who lived at the Her- 
mitage a long time, where he was instructed in 
mystical theology by Monsieur de Bernieres, exer- 
cises episcopal functions there ; and that the Jesuits, 
who are their oracles, reign in that country." 

This adventure, like the other, ended in a colli- 
sion with the pohce. " The priests," adds Nicole, 
" were arrested, and are now waiting trial, and the 
rest were treated as mad, and sent back with shame 
and confusion to the places whence they had 
come." 

1 These proceedings were probably intended to produce the result 
which was the constant object of the mystics of the Hermitage ; namely, 
the " annihilation of self," with a view to a perfect union with God, To 
become despised of men was an important, if not an essential, step in thi« 
mystical suicide. 



94 THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC [1657-62 

Thoagh these pranks took place after Laval had 
left the Hermitage, they serve to characterize the 
school in which he was formed; or, more justly 
speaking, to show its most extravagant side. That 
others did not share the views of the celebrated 
Jansenist, may be gathered from the following pas- 
sage of the funeral oration pronounced over the 
body of Laval half a century later: — 

" The humble abbe was next transported into 
the terrestrial paradise of Monsieur de Bernieres. 
It is thus that I call, as it is fitting to call it, that 
famous Hermitage of Caen, where the seraphic 
author of the ' Christian Interior' (Bernieres) trans- 
formed into angels all those who had the happiness 
to be the companions of his sohtude and of his 
spiritual exercises. It was there that, during four 
years, the fervent abbe drank the living and abound- 
ing waters of grace which have since flowed so be- 
nignly over this land of Canada. In this celestial 
abode his ordinary occupations were prayer, mor- 
tification, instruction of the poor, and spiritual 
readings or conferences; his recreations were to 
labor in the hospitals, wait upon the sick and poor, 
make their beds, dress their wounds, and aid them 
in their most repulsive needs." ^ 

In truth, Laval's zeal was boundless, and the 
exploits of self-humiliation recorded of him were 
unspeakably revolting.^ Bernieres himself regarded 

1 Eloge funebre de Messire Frangois Xavier de Laval-Montmorency , par 
Messire de la Colombiere, Vicaire Gdh&al. 

2 See La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. I. Some of them were closely akin 
to that of the fanatics mentioned above, who ate " immondices d'animaux " 
to mortify the taste. 



1657-62.] GALLICAN AND ULTRAMONTANE. 95 

him as a light by which to guide his own steps in 
ways of holiness. He made journeys on foot about 
the country, disguised, penniless, begging from 
door to door, and courting scorn and opprobrium, 
" in order," says his biographer, " that he might 
sufer for the love of God." Yet, though living at 
this time in a state of habitual rehgious exaltation, 
he was by nature no mere dreamer ; and in what- 
ever heights his spirit might wander, his feet were 
always planted on the solid earth. His flaming 
zeal had for its servants a hard, practical nature, 
perfectly fitted for the battle of life, a narrow in- 
tellect, a stiff and persistent will, and, as his ene 
mies thought, the love of domination native to his 
blood. 

Two great parties divided the Cathohcs of 
France, — the Galilean or national party, and the 
ultramontane or papal party. The first, resting 
on the Scriptural injunction to give tribute to 
CaBsar, held that to the king, the Lord's anointed, 
belonged the temporal, and to the church the 
spiritual power. It held also that the laws and 
customs of the church of France could not be 
broken at the bidding of the Pope.^ The ultra- 
montane party, on the other hand, maintained that 
the Pope, Christ's vicegerent on earth, was su- 
preme over earthly rulers, and should of right hold 
jurisdiction over the clergy of all Christendom, with 
powers of appointment and removal. Hence they 
claimed for him the right of nominating bishops in 

1 See the famous Quatre Articles of 1682, in which tlie liberties of the 
Gallican r'hurch are asserted. 



96 THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC. ll6o<. 

France. This had anciently been exercised by 
assemblies of the French clergy, but in the reign of 
Francis I. the king and the Pope had combined to 
wrest it from them by the Concordat of Bologna. 
Under this compact, wliich was still in force, the 
Pope appointed French bishops on the nomination 
of the king, a plan which displeased the Galli- 
cans, and did not satisfy the ultramontanes. 

The Jesuits, then as now, were the most forcible 
exponents of ultramontane principles. The church 
to rule the world ; the Pope to rule the church ; 
the Jesuits to rule the Pope : such was and is the 
simple programme of the Order of Jesus, and to it 
they have held fast, except on a few rare occa- 
sions of misunderstanding with the Vicegerent of 
Christ.^ In the question of papal supremacy, as 
in most things else, Laval was of one mind with 
them. 

Those versed in such histories will not be sur- 
prised to learn that, when he received the royal 
nomination, humility would not permit him to 
accept it; nor that, being urged, he at length 
bowed in resignation, still protesting his unworthi- 
ness. Nevertheless, the royal nomination did not 
take effect. The ultramontanes outflanked both 
the king and the Galileans, and by adroit strategy 
made the new prelate completely a creature of the 
papacy. Instead of appointing him Bishop of Que- 
bec, in accordance with the royal initiative, the 
Pope made him his vicar apostolic for Canada, 

1 For example, not long after this time, the Jesuits, having a dispute 
with Innocent XI., tlirew themselves into the party of opposition. 



i657.] LAVAL AND QUEYLUS. 97 

thus evading the king's nomination, and affirming 
that Canada, a country of infidel savages, was ex- 
cluded from the concordat, and under his (the 
Pope's) jurisdiction pure and simple. The Galli- 
cans were enraged. The Archbishop of Rouen 
vainly opposed, and the parliaments of Rouen and 
of Paris vainly protested. The papal party pre- 
vailed. The king, or rather Mazarin, gave his 
consent, subject to certain conditions, the chief of 
which was an oath of allegiance ; and Laval, grand 
vicar apostolic, decorated with the title of Bishop 
of Petrsea, sailed for his wilderness diocese in the 
spring of 1659.^ He was but thirty-six years of 
age, but even when a boy he could scarcely have 
seemed young. 

Queylus, for a time, seemed to accept the situa- 
tion, and tacitly admit the claim of Laval as his 
ecclesiastical superior ; but, stimulated by a letter 
from the Archbishop of Rouen, he soon threw him- 
self into an attitude of opposition,^ in which the 
popularity which his generosity to the poor had 
won for him gave him an advantage very annoying 
to his adversary. The quarrel, it will be seen, was 
three-sided, — Galilean against ultramontane, Sul- 
pitian against Jesuit, Montreal against Quebec. 
To Montreal the recalcitrant abb^, after a brief 
visit to Quebec, had again retired ; but even here, 
girt with his Sulpitian brethren and compassed with 

• Compare La Tour, Vie de Laval, with the long statement in Faillon, 
Colonic Frangaise, II. 315-335. Faillon gives various documents in full, 
including the yoyal letter of nomination and those in which the King 
gives a reluctant consent to the appointment of the vicar apostolic. 

2 Journal des J€suites, Sept., 1657. 

7 



95 THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC [165y 

partisans, the arm of the vicar apostolic was long 
enough to reach him. 

By temperament and conviction Laval hated a 
divided authority, and the very shadow of a schism 
was an abomination in his sight. The young king, 
who, though abundantly jealous of his royal power, 
was forced to conciliate the papal party, had sent 
instructions to Argenson, the governor, to support 
Laval, and prevent divisions in the Canadian 
church.^ These instructions served as the pretext 
of a procedure sufficiently summary. A squad of 
soldiers, commanded, it is said, by the governor 
himself, went up to Montreal, brought the indignant 
Queylus to Quebec, and shipped him thence for 
France.^ By these means, writes Father Lalemant, 
order reigned for a season in the church. 

It was but for a season. Queylus was not a 
man to bide his defeat in tranquillity, nor were his 
brother Sulpitians disposed to silent acquiescence. 
Laval, on his part, was not a man of half measures. 
He had an agent in France, and partisans strong at 
court. Fearing, to borrow the words of a Catholic 
writer, that the return of Queylus to Canada would 
prove " injurious to the glory of God," he bestirred 
himself to prevent it. The young king, then at 
Aix, on his famous journey to the frontiers of 
Spain to marry the Infanta, was induced to write 
to Queylus, ordering him to remain in France.^ 
Queylus, however, repaired to Rome ; but even 

^ Lettre du Roi a d' Argenson, 14 Mai, 1659. 

2 Belmont, Histoire du Canada, a.d. 1659. Memoir hy Abb6 d'Allet, 
•i\ Morale Pratique des J€suites, XXXIV. 725. 
» Lettre dn Roi a Queylus, 27 Feb., 1660. 



i6j0-61.] another storm. 99 

ngainst this movement provision had been made : 
accusations of Jansenism had gone before him, and 
he met a cold welcome. Nevertheless, as he had 
powerful friends near the Pope, he succeeded in 
removing these adverse impressions, and even in 
obtaining certain bulls relating to the establishment 
of the parish of Montreal, and favorable to the Sul 
pitians. Provided with these, he set at nought the 
king's letter, embarked under an assumed name, 
and sailed to Quebec, where he made his appear- 
ance on the 3d of August, 1661,^ to the extreme 
wrath of Laval. 

A ferment ensued. Laval's partisans charged 
the Sulpitians with Jansenism and opposition to the 
^vill of the Pope. A preacher more zealous than 
the rest denounced them as priests of Antichrist ; 
and as to the bulls in their favor, it was affirmed 
that Queylus had obtained them by fraud from the 
Holy Father. Laval at once issued a mandate for- 
bidding him to proceed to Montreal till ships should 
arrive with instructions from the King.^ At the 
same time he demanded of the governor that he 
should interpose the civil power to prevent Queylus 
from leaving Quebec.^ As Argenson, who wished 
to act as peacemaker between the belligerent 
fathers, did not at once take the sharp measures 
required of him, Laval renewed his demand on the 
next day, calling on him, in the name of God and 
the king, to compel Queylus to yield the obedience 

* Journal des J€suites, Aovt, 1661. 

2 Lettre de Laval a Queylus, 4 Aout, 1661. 

' Lettre de Laval a d' Argenson, Ibid. 



100 THE DISPUTED BISHOPRIC. [1G61 

due to liim, the vicar apostolic.^ At the same 
time he sent another to the offending abbe, threat- 
ening to suspend him from priestly functions if he 
persisted in his rebeUion.^ 

The incorrigible Queylus, who seems to have 
lived for some months in a simmer of continual in- 
dignation, set at nought the vicar apostolic as he 
had set at nought the king, took a boat that very 
night, and set out for Montreal under cover of dark- 
ness. Great was the ire of Laval when he heard 
the news in the morning. He despatched a letter 
after him, declaring him suspended ipso facto, if he 
did not instantly return and make his submission.*'' 
This letter, like the rest, failed of the desired effect ; 
but the governor, who had received a second man- 
date from the king to support Laval and prevent 
a schism,* now reluctantly interposed the secular 
arm, and Queylus was again compelled to return 
to France.^ 

His expulsion was a Sulpitian defeat. Laval, 
always zealous for unity and centralization, had 
some time before taken steps to repress what he 
regarded as a tendency to independence at Mon- 
treal. In the preceding year he had written to the 
Pope : "There are some secular priests {Sulpitians) 
at Montreal, whom the Abb^ de Queylus brought 
out with him in 1657, and I have named for the 

' Lettre de Laval a d'Argenson, 5 Ao{tt, 1661. 
2 Lettre de Laval a Queylus, Ibid. 
» Ibid, 6 Aout, 1661. 

* Lettre du Roi a d'Argenson, 13 Mai, 1660. 

* For the governor's attitude in this affair, consult the Papiers d^Argen- 
ton, containing his despatches. 



1661.J VICTOEY OF LAVAL. 101 

functions of cur^ the one among them whom 1 
thouo;ht the least disobedient." The bulls which 
Queylus had obtained from Rome related to this 
very curacy, and greatly disturbed the mind of the 
AT.car apostolic. He accordingly wrote again to the 
Pope : " I pray your Holiness to let me knoAv your 
will concerning the jurisdiction of the Archbishop 
of Rouen. M. I'Abbe de Queylus, who has come 
out this year as vicar of this archbishop, has tried to 
deceive us by surreptitious letters, and has obeyed 
neither our prayers nor our repeated commands to 
desist. But he has received orders from the king 
to return immediately to France, to render an ac- 
count of his disobedience, and he has been compelled 
by the governor to conform to the will of his 
Majesty. What I now fear is that, on his return 
to France, by using every kind of means, employ- 
ing new artifices, and falsely representing our 
affairs, he may obtain from the court of Rome 
powers which may disturb the peace of our church ; 
for the priests whom he brought with him from 
France, and who hve at Montreal, are animated 
mth the same spirit of disobedience and division ; 
and I fear, with good reason, that all belonging to 
the seminary of St. Sulpice, who may come here- 
after to join them, will be of the same disposition. 
If what is said is true, that by means of fraudulent 
letters the right of patronage of the pretended 
parish of Montreal has been granted to the supe- 
rior of this seminary, and the right of appointment 
to the Archbishop of Rouen, then is altar reared 
against altar in our church of Canada; for the 



102 THE DISPUTED BISHOPEIC. [1*568 

clergj of Montreal will always stand in opposition 
to me, the vicar apostolic, and to my successors." ^ 
These dismal forebodings were never realized 
The Holy See annuUed the obnoxious bulls ; the 
Archbishop of Eouen renounced his claims, and 
Queylus found his position untenable. Seven years 
later, when Laval was on a visit to France, a recon- 
ciliation was brought about between them. The 
former vicar of the Archbishop of Rouen made 
his submission to the vicar of the Pope, and returned 
to Canada as a missionary, Laval's triumph was 
complete, to the joy of the Jesuits, silent, if not 
idle, spectators of the tedious and complex quarrel. 

1 Lettre do Laval au Pape, 22 Oct., 1661. Printed by Faillon, from the 
orisinal in the archives of the Propaganda. 



CHAPTER V. 

1659, 1660. 

LAVAL AND AHGENSON. 

Fkancois db Laval. — His Position and Charactee. — Arritai 
OF Aegenson. — The Quarrel. 

"We are touching delicate ground. To many 
excellent Catholics of our own day Laval is an 
object of veneration. The Cathohc university of 
Quebec glories in bearing his name, and certain 
modern ecclesiastical writers rarely mention him 
in terms less reverent than "the virtuous prel- 
ate," or "the holy prelate." Nor are some of hia 
contemporaries less emphatic in eulogy. Mother 
Juchereau de Saint-Denis, Superior of the HOtel 
Dieu, wrote immediately after his death : " He began 
in his tenderest years the study of perfection, and we 
have reason to think that he reached it, since every 
virtue which Saint Paul demands in a bishop was 
seen and admired in him ; " and on his first arrival 
in Canada, Mother Marie de 1 'Incarnation, Superior 
of the Ursulines, wrote to her son that the choice 
of such a prelate was not of man, but of God. " I 
will not," she adds, " say that he is a saint, but I 
may say with truth that he lives like a saint and 



104 LAVAL AND ARGENSON. [1659, 

an apostle." And she describes his austerity of 
Uf e ; how he had but two servants, a gardener — 
whom he lent on occasion to his needy neigh- 
bors — and a valet ; how he lived in a small hired 
house, saying that he would not have one of his 
own if he could build it for only five sous ; and 
how, in his table, furniture, and bed, he showed the 
spirit of poverty, even, as she thinks, to excess. 
His servant, a lay brother named Houssart, testified, 
after his death, that he slept on a hard bed, and 
would not suffer it to be changed even when it 
became full of fleas ; and, what is more to the pur- 
pose, that he gave fifteen hundred or two thousand 
francs to the poor every year.^ Houssart also gives 
the following specimen of his austerities : " I have 
seen him keep cooked meat five, six, seven, or 
eight days in the heat of summer, and when it was 
all mouldy and wormy he washed it in warm water 
and ate it, and told me that it was very good." 
The old servant was so impressed by these and 
other proofs of his master's sanctity, that " I deter- 
mined," he says, "to keep every thing I could 
that had belonged to his holy person, and after his 
death to soak bits of linen in his blood when his 
body was opened, and take a few bones and carti • 
lages from his breast, cut off his hair, and keep his 
clothes, and such things, to serve as most precious 
relics." These pious cares were not in vain, for 
the relics proved greatly in demand. 

* Leitre du Frere Houssart, ancien serviteur de Wg'r de Laval a M. 
Tremhlay, 1 Sept., 1708. This letter is printed, though with one or two 
Imnortant omissions, in the Abeille, Vol. I. (Quebec, 1848. J 



1659.] fc^RANCOIS DE LAVAL. 105 

Several portraits of Laval are extant. A drooping 
nose of portentous size ; a well-formed forehead ; 
a brow strongly arched ; a bright, clear eye ; scanty 
hair, half hidden by a black skullcap ; thin lips, 
compressed and rigid, betraying a spirit not easy 
to move or convince ; features of that indescribable 
cast which marks the priestly type : such is Laval, 
as he looks grimly down on us from the dingy can- 
vas of two centuries ago. 

He is one of those concerning whom Protestants 
and Catholics, at least ultramontane Catholics, will 
never agree in judgment. The task of eulogizing 
him may safely be left to those of his own way 
of thinking. It is for us to regard him from 
the standpoint of secular history. And, first, let 
us credit him with sincerity. He believed firmly 
that the princes and rulers of this world ought 
to be subject to guidance and control at the 
hands of the Pope, the vicar of Christ on earth. 
But he himself was the Pope's vicar, and, so far as 
the bounds of Canada extended, the Holy Father 
had clothed him with his own authority. The glory 
of God demanded that this authority should suffer 
no abatement, and he, Laval, would be gmlty before 
Heaven if he did not uphold the supremacy of the 
church over the powers both of earth and of heU. 

Of the faults which he owed to nature, the prin- 
cipal seems to have been an arbitrary and domi- 
neering temper. He was one of those who by 
nature lean always to the side of authority ; and in 
the English Eevolution he would inevitably have 
stood for the Stuarts ; or, in the American Eevolu- 



106 LAVAL AND ARGENSON. [1659 

tion, for the Crown. But being above all things 
a Catholic and a priest, he was drawn by a consti- 
tutional necessity to the ultramontane party, or 
the party of centralization. He fought lustily, in 
his way, against the natural man ; and humility was 
the virtue to the culture of which he gave his 
chief attention, but soil and climate were not fav- 
orable. His life was one long assertion of the 
authority of the church, and this authority was 
lodged in himself. In his stubborn fight for eccle- 
siastical ascendancy, he was aided by the impulses 
of a nature that loved to rule, and could not endure 
to yield. His principles and his instinct of domina- 
tion were acting in perfect unison, and his con- 
science was the handmaid of his fault. Austerities 
and mortifications, playing at beggar, sleeping in 
beds full of fleas, or performing prodigies of gratu- 
itous dirtiness in hospitals, however fatal to self- 
respect, could avail little against influences working 
so powerfully and so insidiously to stimulate the 
most subtle of human vices. The history of the 
Roman church is full of Lavals. 

The Jesuits, adepts in human nature, had made 
a sagacious choice when they put forward this con- 
scientious, zealous, dogged, and pugnacious priest 
to fight their battles. Nor were they ill pleased 
that, for the present, he was not Bishop of Canada, 
but only vicar apostolic ; for, such being the case, 
they could have him recalled if, on trial, they did 
not like him, while an unacceptable bishop would 
be an evil past remedy. 

Canada was enterino; a state of transition. Hith- 



1669.] APPROACHING CHANGE. 107 

erto ecclesiastical influence had been all in all. The 
Jesuits, by far the most educated and able body of 
men in the colony, had controlled it, not alone in 
things spiritual, but virtually in things temporal 
also ; and the governor may be said to hav^e been 
little else than a chief of police, under the direction 
of the missionaries. The early governors were them- 
selves deeply imbued with the missionary spirit. 
Champlain was earnest above all things for con- 
verting the Indians; Montmagny was half -monk, 
for he was a Knight of Malta; Aillebout was so 
insanely pious, that he lived with his wife like monk 
and nun. A change was at hand. From a mission 
and a trading station, Canada was soon to become, 
in the true sense, a colony; and civil government 
had begun to assert itself on the banks of the St. 
Lawrence. The epoch of the martyrs and apostles 
was passing away, and the man of the sword and 
the man of the gown — the soldier and the legist — 
were threatening to supplant the paternal sway of 
priests ; or, as Laval might have said, the hosts of 
this world were beleaguering the sanctuary, and 
he was called of Heaven to defend it. His true 
antagonist, though three thousand miles away, was 
the great minister Colbert, as purely a statesman 
as the vicar apostolic was purely a priest. Laval, 
no doubt, could see behind the statesman's back 
another adversary, the devil. 

Argenson was governor when the crozier and the 
sword began to clash, which is merely another way 
of saying that he was governor when Laval arrived. 
He seems to have been a man of education, modera- 



108 LAVAL AND AEGENSON. [1359. 

fcion, and sense, and lie was also an earnest Catholic ; 
but if Laval had his duties to God, so had Argenson 
his duties to the king, of whose authority he was 
the representative and guardian. If the first colli- 
sions seem trivial, they were no less the symptoms 
of a grave antagonism. Argenson could have pur- 
chased peace only by becoming an agent of the 
church. 

The vicar apostolic, or, as he was usually styled, 
the bishop, being, it may be remembered, titular 
Bishop of Petrgea in Arabia, presently fell into a 
quarrel with the governor touching the relative 
position of their seats in church, — a point which, 
by the way, was a subject of contention for many 
years, and under several successive governors. This 
time the case was referred to the ex-governor, 
Aillebout, and a temporary settlement took place.^ 
A few weeks after, on the fete of Saint Francis 
Xavier, when the Jesuits were accustomed to ask 
the dignitaries of the colony to dine in their refec- 
tory after mass, a fresh difficulty arose, — Should 
the governor or the bishop have the higher seat at 
table ? The question defied solution ; so the fathers 
invited neither of them.^ 

Again, on Christmas, at the midnight mass, the 
deacon offered incense to the bishop, and then, in 
obedience to an order from him, sent a subordinate 
to offer it to the governor, instead of offering it 
himself. Laval further insisted that the priests of 
the choir should receive incense before the gover- 

1 Lalemant, in Journal des Jffsuites, Sept., 1669. 

2 Ibid., Dec, 1659. 



1659-60. 1 DISPUTES OF PRECEDENCE 100 

nor received it. Argenson resisted, and a bitter 
quarrel ensued.^ 

The late governor, Aillebout, had been church- 
warden ex officio ; ^ and in this pious community the 
office was esteemed as an addition to his honors. 
Argenson had thus far held the same position ; but 
Laval declared that he should hold it no longer. 
Argenson, to whom the bishop had not spoken on 
the subject, came soon after to a meeting of the 
wardens, and, being challenged, denied Laval's right 
to dismiss him. A dispute ensued, in which the 
bishop, according to his Jesuit friends, used lan- 
guage not very respectful to the representative of 
royalty.^ 

On occasion of the " solemn catechism," the 
bishop insisted that the children should salute him 
before saluting the governor. Argenson hearing 
of this, declined to come. A compromise was con- 
trived. It was agreed that when the rival digni- 
taries entered, the children should be busied in 
some manual exercise which should prevent their 
saluting either. Nevertheless, two boys, " enticed 
and set on by their parents," saluted the governor 
first, to the great indignation of Laval. They were 
whipped on the next day for breach of orders.* 

Next there was a sharp quarrel about a sentence 
pronounced by Laval against a heretic, to which 
the governor, good Catholic as he was, took excep- 

* Lalemant, in Journal des Jdsuites, Dec, 1659; Lettre d' Argenson i 
MM. de la Compagnie de St. Sulpice. 

2 Livre des D€lih^raticns de la Fabrique de Qn€bec. 
^ Journal des J€sui.tes, Nov., 1660 

• Ibid., Feb., 1661. 



110 LAVAL AND AEGENSON [166L 

tion.^ Palm Sunday came, and there could be no 
procession and no distribution of branches, because 
the governor and the bishop could not agree on 
points of precedence.^ On the day of the Fete 
Dieu, however, there was a grand procession, which 
stopped from time to time at temporary altars, oi 
reposoirs, placed at intervals along its course. One 
of these was in the fort, where the soldiers were 
drawn, up, waiting the arrival of the procession. 
Laval demanded that they should take off their 
hats. Argenson assented, and the soldiers stood 
uncovered. Laval now insisted that they should 
kneel. The governor replied that it was their duty 
as soldiers to stand ; whereupon the bishop refused 
to stop at the altar, and ordered the procession to 
move on.^ 

The above incidents are set down in the private 
journal of the superior of the Jesuits, which was 
not meant for the public eye. The bishop, it will 
be seen, was, by the showing of his friends, in most 
cases the aggressor. The disputes in question, 
though of a nature to provoke a smile on irrev- 
erent lips, were by no means so puerile as they 
appear. It is difficult in a modern democratic 
society to conceive the substantial importance of 
the signs and symbols of dignity and authority, 
at a time and among a people where they were 
adjusted with the most scrupulous precision, and 
accepted by all classes as exponents of relative 
degrees in the social and pohtical scale. Whetl -ijc 

* Journal des J^suites, Feb., 1661. 

2 Ibid., Aval, 1661. » Ibid., Juin, 1661. 



leei.l APPEAL OF AKGENSON. Ill 

the bishop or the governor should sit in the higher 
seat at table thus became a political question, for 
it defined to the popular understanding the posi- 
tion of church and state in their relations to 
government 

Hence it is not surprising to find a memorial, 
drawn up apparently by Argenson, and addressed 
to the council of state, asking for instructions when 
and how a governor — lieutenant-general for the 
king — ought to receive incense, holy water, and 
consecrated bread ; whether the said bread should 
be offered him with sound of drum and fife ; Avhat 
should be the position of his seat at church ; and 
what place he should hold in various religious cere- 
monies ; whether in feasts, assemblies, ceremonies, 
and councils of a purely civil character, he or the 
bishop was to hold the first place ; and, finally, if 
the bishop could excommunicate the inhabitants or 
others for acts of a civil and political character, 
when the said acts were pronounced lawful by the 
governor. 

The reply to the memorial denies to the bishop 
the power of excommunication in civil matters, 
assigns to him the second place in meetings and 
ceremonies of a civil character, and is very reticent 
as to the rest.^ 

Argenson had a brother, a counsellor of state, 
and a fast friend of the Jesuits. Laval was in 
correspondence with him, and, apparently sure of 
sympathy, wrote to him touching his relations with 
the governor. "Your brother," he begins, "re- 

* Advis et R^s'^lutions demand^s sur la Nouvelle France. 



li2 LAVAL AND AEGENSON [1659-CO 

ceived me on my arrival with extraordinary kind- 
ness ; " but he proceeds to say that, perceiving with 
sorrow that he entertained a groundless distrust of 
those good servants of God, the Jesuit fathers, he, 
the bishop, thought it his duty to give him in pri- 
vate a candid warning which ought to have done 
good, but which, to his surprise, the governor had 
taken amiss, and had conceived, in consequence, a 
prejudice against his monitor.^ 

Argenson, on his part, writes to the same brother, 
at about the same time. " The Bishop of Petraea is 
so stiff in opinion, and so often transported by his 
zeal beyond the rights of his position, that he makes 
no difficulty in encroaching on the functions of 
others; and this with so much heat that he will 
listen to nobody. A few days ago he carried off 
a servant girl of one of the inhabitants here, and 
placed her by his own authority in the Ursuline 
convent, on the sole pretext that he wanted to have 
her instructed, thus depriving her master of her 
services, though he had been at great expense in 
bringing her from France. This inhabitant is M. 
Denis, who, not knowing who had carried her off, 
came to me with a petition to get her out of the 
convent. I kept the petition three days without 
answering it, to prevent the affair from being noised 
abroad. The Reverend Father Lalemant, with 
whom I communicated on the subject, and who 
greatly blamed the Bishop of Petraea, did all in 
his power to have the girl given up quietly, but 

^ Lettre de Laval a M. d' Argenson, frere du Gouvemeur, 20 OH., 
1659. 



16B9-60.J CLERICAL VIGOR. 113 

without the least success, so that I was forced to 
answer the petition, and permit M. Denis to take 
his servant wherever he should find her ; and, if I 
had not used means to bring about an acconmaoda- 
tion, and if M. Denis, on the refusal which was 
made him to give her up, had brought the matter 
mto court, I should have been compelled to take 
measures which would have caused great scandal , 
and all from the self-will of the Bishop of Petrsea, 
who says that a bishop can do what he liTces, and 
threatens nothing but excommunication." ^ 

In another letter he speaks in the same strain of 
this redundancy of zeal on the part of the bishop^ 
which often, he says, takes the shape of obstinacy 
and encroachment on the rights of others. " It 
is greatly to be wished," he observes, " that the 
Bishop of Petraea would give his confidence to 
the Reverend Father Lalemant instead of Father 
Ragueneau ; " ^ and he praises Lalemant as a per- 
son of excellent sense. " It would be well," he adds, 
" if the rest of their community were of the same 
mind ; for in that case they would not mix them- 
selves up with various matters in the way they do, 
and would leave the government to those to whom 
God has given it in charge." ^ 

One of Laval's modern admirers, the worthy 
Abbe Ferland, after confessing that his zeal may 
now and then have savored of excess, adds in his 
defence, that a vigorous hand was needed to com- 

> " — Qui diet quun Evesque peult ce qu'il veult et ne menace que dex- 
'Communication." Lettre d'Argenson a son Frere, 1659. 

2 Lettre d'Argenson u son Frere, 21 Oct., 1659. 

3 Ibid., 7 Juli/, 1660. 

8 



lid LAVAL AND ARGENSON. [165{/ 60. 

pel the infant colony to enter " the good path ; " 
meaning, of course, the straitest path of Roman 
Catholic orthodoxy. We may hereafter see more 
of this stringent system of colonial education, its 
success, and the results that followed. 



CHAPTER VI. 

1658-1663. 

LAVAL AKD AVAUGOUR. 

Reception op Argbnson. — His Difficulties. — His Kecall. — 
Dubois d'Avaugour. — The Brandt Quarrel. — Distress of 
Laval. — Portents. — The Earthquake. 

Wheut Argenson arrived to assume the govern- 
ment, a curious greeting had awaited him. The 
Jesuits asked him to dine ; vespers followed the 
repast ; and then they conducted him into a hall, 
where the boys of their school — disguised, one as 
the Genius of New France, one as the Genius of 
the Forest, and others as Indians of various friendly 
tribes — made him speeches by turn, in prose and 
verse. First, Pierre du Quet, who played the 
Genius of New France, presented his Indian retinue 
to the governor, in a complimentary harangue. 
Then four other boys, personating French colonists, 
made him four flattering addresses, in French verse. 
Charles Denis, dressed as a Huron, followed, bewail- 
ing the ruin of his people, and appealing to Argen- 
son for aid. Jean Francois Bourdon, in the character 
of an Algonquin, next advanced on the platform, 
boasted his courapre, and declared that he was 



116 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUE. [1658 

ashamed to cry like the Huron. The Genius ol 
the Forest now appeared, with a retinue of wild 
Indians from the interior, who, being unable to 
speak French, addressed the governor in their 
native tongues, which the Genius proceeded to 
interpret. Two other boys, in the character of 
prisoners just escaped from the Iroquois, then came 
forward, imploring aid in piteous accents ; and, in 
conclusion, the whole troop of Indians, from far 
and near, laid their bows and arrows at the feet of 
Argenson, and hailed him as their chief.' 

Besides these mock Indians, a crowd of genuine 
savages had gathered at Quebec to greet the new 
" Ononthio." On the next day — at his own cost, 
as he writes to a friend — he gave them a feast, 
consisting of " seven large kettles full of Indian 
com, peas, prunes, sturgeons, eels, and fat, which 
they devoured, having first sung me a song, aftei 
their fashion," ^ 

These festivities over, he entered on the serious 
business of his government, and soon learned that 
his path was a thorny one. He could find, he says, 
but a hundred men to resist the twenty-four hun- 
dred warriors of the Iroquois ; ^ and he begs the 
proprietary company which he represented to send 
him a hundred more, who could serve as soldiers 
or laborers, according to the occasion. 

1 La deception de Monseigneur le Vicomte d' Argenson par toutes les naliom 
du pais de Canada a son entrde au gouvernement de la Nouvelle France; a 
Quehecq au College de la Compagnie de J^sus, le 28 de Juillet de l'ann€e 1668. 
The speeches, in French and Indian, are here given verbatim, with the 
names of all the hoys who took part in the ceremony. 

2 Papieis d' Argenson. Kehec, 5 Sept., 1658. 

' M^oire sur le subject (sic) de la Guerre des Iroquois, 1659. 



i65S-o9.| TROUBLES OF ARGENSON. 117 

The company turned a deaf ear to his appeals. 
They had lost money in Canada, and were griev- 
onsly out of humor with it. In their view, the 
first duty of a governor was to collect their debts, 
which, for more reasons than one, was no easy 
task. While they did nothing to aid the colony 
in its distress, they beset Argenson with demands 
for the thousand pounds of beaver-skins, which the 
inhabitants had agreed to send them every year, in 
return for the privilege of the fur trade, a privi- 
lege which the Iroquois war made for the present 
worthless. The perplexed governor vents his feel- 
ings in sarcasm. " They {the company) take no 
pains to learn the truth ; and, when they hear of 
settlers carried off and burned by the Iroquois, 
they will think it a punishment for not settling 
old debts, and paying over the beaver-skins." * " I 
wish," he adds, " they would send somebody to 
look after their affairs here. I would gladly give 
him the same lodging and entertainment as my 
own." 

Another matter gave him great annoyance. This 
was the virtual independence of Montreal; and 
here, if nowhere else, he and the bishop were of 
the same mind. On one occasion he made a visit 
to the place in question, where he expected to be 
received as governor-general; but the local gov- 
ernor, Maisonneuve, dechned, or at least postponed, 
to take his orders and give him the keys of the 
fort. Argenson accordingly speaks of Montreal as 
" a place which makes so much noise, but which ia 

.1 Papiers d' Argenson, 21 Oct., 1659. 



118 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR. [1658-59 

of such small account." * He adds that, besides 
wanting to be independent, the Montrealists want 
to monopolize the fur trade, which would cause 
civil war ; and that the king ought to interpose to 
correct their obstinacy. 

In another letter he complains of Aillebout, who 
had preceded him in the government, though him- 
self a Montreahst. Argenson says that, on going 
out to fight the Iroquois, he left Aillebout at Que- 
bec, to act as his heutenant ; that, instead of doing 
so, he had assumed to govern in his own right; 
that he had taken possession of his absent supe- 
rior's furniture, drawn his pay, and in other 
respects behaved as if he never expected to see 
him again. " When I returned," continues the 
governor, "I made him director in the council, 
without pay, as there was none to give him. It 
was this, I think, that made him remove to Mon- 
treal, for which I do not care, provided the glory 
of our Master suffer no prejudice thereby." ^ 

These extracts may, perhaps, give an unjust 
impression of Argenson, who, from the general 
tenor of his letters, appears to have been a tem- 
perate and reasonable person. His patience and his 
nervous system seem, however, to have been taxed 
to the utmost. His pay could not support him. 
" The costs of living here are horrible," he writes. 
" I have only two thousand crowns a year for all 
my expenses, and I have already been forced to 

1 Papiers d' Argenson, 4 Aout, 1659. 

2 Ibid. Double de la lettre escripte par le Vaisseau du Gaigneur, parti U 
5 Septembre (1658). 



1058-59.] TEOUBLES OF AEGENSOI^. HI.) 

run into debt to the company to an equal amount." ' 
Part of his scanty income was derived from a 
fishery of eels, on which sundry persons had en- 
croached, to his great detriment.^ " I see no rea- 
son," he adds, " for staying here any longer. When 
I came to this country, I hoped to enjoy a little 
repose, but I am doubly deprived of it; on one 
hand by enemies without, and incessant petty dis- 
putes within ; and, on the other, by the difficulty 
I find in subsisting. The profits of the fur trade 
have been so reduced that all the inhabitants are 
in the greatest poverty. They are all insolvent, 
and cannot pay the merchants their advances." 

His disgust at length reached a crisis. " I am 
resolved to stay here no longer, but to go home 
next year. My horror of dissension, and the mani- 
fest certainty of becoming involved in disputes 
with certain persons with whom I am unwilling to 
quarrel, oblige me to anticipate these troubles, and 
seek some way of living in peace. These excessive 
fatigues are far too much for my strength. I am 
writing to Monsieur the President, and to the gen- 
tlemen of the Company of New France, to choose 
some other man for this government." ^ And again, 
" if you take any interest in this country, see that 
tlie person chosen to command here has, besides the 
true piety necessary to a Christian in every condi- 
tion of life, great firmness of character and strong 
bodily health. I assure you that without these 

* Ibid. Lettre a M de Morangi, 5 Sept., 1658. 

' Ddiberations de la Compagnie dt la Nouvelle France. 

• Papiers cFArqenson. Lettre a son Frere, 1659. 



120 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUB. 11661 

qualities lie cannot succeed. Besides, it is abso- 
lutely necessary that he should be a man of prop- 
erty and of some rank, so that he will not be 
despised for humble birth, or suspected of coming 
here to make his fortune ; for in that case he can 
do no good whatever." ^ 

His constant friction with the head of the church 
distressed the pious governor, and made his lecall 
doubly a relief. According to a contemporary 
writer, Laval was the means of delivering him from 
the burden of government, having written to the 
President Lamoignon to urge his removal.^ Be 
this as it may, it is certain that the bishop was not 
«orry to be rid of him. 

The Baron Dubois d'Avaugour arrived to take 
his place. He was an old soldier of forty years 
service,^ blunt, imperative, and sometimes obsti- 
nate to perverseness ; but full of energy, and of 
a probity which even his enemies confessed. " He 
served a long time in Germany while you were 
there," writes the minister Colbert to the Marquis 
de Tracy, " and you must have known his talents, 
as well as his bizarre and somewhat impracticable 
temper." On landing, he would have no recep- 
tion, being, as Father Lalemant observes, " an 
enemy of all ceremony." He went, however, 
to see the Jesuits, and " took a morsel of food in 
our refectory."* Laval was prepared to receive 

1 Ibid. Lettre (a son Frere ?), 4 Nov., 1660. The originals of Argen- 
Bon's letters were destroyed in the burning of the library of the Louvre 
by the Commune. 

2 Lachenaye, M€moire sur le Canada. 
' Avaugour, M^moire, 4 Aout, 1663. 

* Lalemant, Journal des J^suites, Sept., 1661. 



1661-62.] THE BRANDY QUARREL. 121 

Mm with all solemnity at the church; but the 
governor would not go. He soon set out on a tour 
of observation as far as Montreal, whence he re- 
turned delighted with the country, and immediately 
wrote to Colbert in high praise of it, observing 
that the St. Lawrence was the most beautiful river 
he had ever seen.* 

It was clear from the first that, while he had a 
prepossession against the bishop, he wished to be 
on good terms with the Jesuits. He began by 
placing some of them on the council ; but they and 
Laval were too closely united; and if Avaugour 
thought to separate them, he signally failed. A few 
months only had elapsed when we find it noted in 
Father Lalemant's private journal that the governor 
had dissolved the council and appointed a new one, 
and that other " changes and troubles " had befallen 
The inevitable quarrel had broken out; it was a 
complex one, but the chief occasion of dispute was 
fortunate for the ecclesiastics, since it placed them, 
to a certain degree, morally in the right. 

The question at issue was not new. It had 
agitated the colony for years, and had been the 
spring of some of Argenson's many troubles. Nor 
did it cease with Avaugour, for we shall trace its 
course hereafter, tumultuous as a tornado. It was 
simply the temperance question; not as regards 
the colonists, though here, too, there was great 
room for reform, but as regards the Indians. 

Their inordinate passion for brandy had long 
been the source of excessive disorders. They drank 

1 Lettre d' Avauqour an Mimstre, 1661. 



122 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUB. [1C61-G'2 

expressly to get drunk, and when drunk they wei'e 
Hke wild beasts. Crime and violence of all sorts 
ensued; the priests saw their teachings despised 
and their flocks ruined. On the other hand, the 
sale of brandy was a chief source of profit, direct 
or indirect, to all those interested in the fur trade, 
including the principal persons of the colony. In 
Argenson's time, Laval launched an excommunica- 
tion against those engaged in the abhorred traffic ; 
for nothing less than total prohibition would con- 
tent the clerical party, and besides the spiritual 
penalty, they demanded the punishment of death 
against the contumacious offender. Death, in 
fact, was decreed. Such was the posture of affairs 
when Avaugour arrived ; and, willing as he was to 
conciliate the Jesuits, he permitted the decree to 
take effect, although, it seems, with great repug- 
nance. A few weeks after his arrival, two men 
were shot and one whipped, for selling brandy 
to Indians.^ An extreme though partially sup- 
pressed excitement shook the entire settlement, 
for most of the colonists were, in one degree or 
another, implicated in the offence thus punished. 
An explosion soon followed; and the occasion of 
it was the humanity or good-nature of the Jesuit 
Lalemant. 

A woman had been condemned to imprisonment 
for the same cause, and Lalemant, moved by com- 
passion, came to the governor to intercede for her. 
Avaugour could no longer contain himself, and 
answered the reverend petitioner with character- 

^ Journal des J^suites, Oct., 1661. 



1661-62.J THE BKANDY QUARREL. 123 

istic bluntness. " You and your brethren were 
the first to cry out against the trade, and now you 
want to save the traders from punishment. I will 
no longer be the sport of your contradictions. 
Since it is not a crime for this woman, it shall not 
be a crime for anybody." ^ And in this posture 
he stood fast, with an inflexible stubbornness. 

Henceforth there was full license to liquor deal- 
ers. A violent reaction ensued against the past 
restriction, and brandy flowed freely among French 
and Indians alike. The ungodly drank to spite 
the priests and revenge themselves for the " con- 
straint of consciences," of which they loudly com- 
plained. The utmost confusion followed, and the 
principles on which the pious colony was built 
seemed upheaved from the foundation. Laval was 
distracted with grief and anger. He outpoured 
himself from the pulpit in threats of divine wrath, 
and launched fresh excommunications against the 
offenders ; but such was the popular fury, that ho 
was forced to yield and revoke them.^ 

Disorder grew from bad to worse. " Men gave 
no heed to bishop, preacher, or confessor," writes 
Father Charlevoix. " The French have despised 
the remonstrances of our prelate, because they are 
supported by the civil power, ' says the superior of 
the Ursulines. "He is almost dead with grief, 
and pines away before our eyes." 

Laval could bear it no longer, but sailed for 

1 La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. V. 

2 Journal des J€suites, Feb., 1662. The sentence of excommunication 
1b printed in the Appendix to the Esquisse de la Vie de Laval, It bears 
date February 24. It was on this very day that he was forced to revoke it 



124 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR. [1662-63 

France, to lay his complaints before the court, and 
urge the removal of Avaugour. He had, besides, 
two other important objects, as will appear here- 
after. His absence brought no improvement. 
Summer and autumn passed, and the commotion 
did not abate. Winter was drawing to a close, 
when, at length, outraged Heaven interposed an 
awful warning to the guilty colony. 

Scarcely had the bishop left his flock when the 
skies grew portentous with signs of the chastisement 
to come. " We beheld," gravely writes Father 
Lalemant, "blazing serpents which flew through 
the air, borne on wings of fire. We beheld above 
Quebec a great globe of flame, which lighted up 
the night, and threw out sparks on all sides. This 
same meteor appeared above Montreal, where it 
seemed to issue from the bosom of the moon, Avith 
a noise as loud as cannon or thunder, and after 
sailing three leagues through the air it disappeared 
behind the mountain whereof this island bears the 
name." ^ 

.Still greater marvels followed. First, a Christian 
Algonquin squaw, described as "innocent, simple, 
and sincere," being seated erect in bed, wide awake, 
b}' the side of her husband, in the night between 
theiourth and fifth of February, distinctly heard a 
voice saying, " Strange things will happen to-day ; 
the earth will quake ! " In great alarm she whis- 
pered the prodigy to her husband, who told her 
that she lied. This silenced her for a time ; but 
when, the next morning, she went into the forest 

1 Lalemant. Relation, 1663, 2. 



1663.] PORTENTS. VAb 

with her hatchet to cut a faggot of wood, the same 
dread \'oice resounded through the soUtude, and 
sent her back in terror to her hut.^ 

These things were as nothing compared with 
the marvel that befell a nun of the hospital, Mother 
Catherine de Saint-Augustin, who died five years 
later, in the odor of sanctity. On the night of tlie 
fourth of February, 1663, she beheld in the spirit 
four furious demons at the four corners of Quebec, 
shaking it with a violence which plainly showed 
their purpose of reducing it to ruins ; " and this 
they would have done," says the story, " if a per- 
sonage of admirable beauty and ravishing majesty 
'[Christ], whom she saw in the midst of them, and 
who, from time to time, gave rein to their fury, had 
not restrained them when they were on the point 
of accomplishing their wicked design." She also 
heard the conversation of these demons, to the 
effect that people were now well frightened, and 
many would be converted ; but this would not last 
long, and they, the demons, would have them in 
time, *' Let us keep on shaking," they cried, en- 
couraging each other, " and do our best to upset 
every thing." ^ 

Now, to pass from visions to facts : " At half -past 
five o'clock on the morning of the fifth," writes 
Father Lalemant, " a great roaring sound was 
heard at the same time through the whole extent 

1 Lalemant, Relation, 1663, 6. 

2 Ragueneau, Vie de Catherine de St. Augustin, Liv. IV. cbap. i. The 
Barae story is told by Juchereau, Lalemant, and Marie de I'Incarnation, 
*to whom Charlevoix erroneously ascribes the vjiion, as does also the 
A.bbe La Tour. 



126 LAVAL AKD AVAUGOUR :i668. 

of Canada. This sound, whicli produced an effect 
as if the houses were on fire, brought everybody 
out of doors ; but instead of seeing smoke and flame, 
they were amazed to behold the walls shaking, and 
all the stones moving as if they would drop from 
their places. The houses seemed to bend first to 
one side and then to the other. Bells sounded of 
themselves ; beams, joists, and planks cracked ; 
the ground heaved, making the pickets of the 
palisades dance in a way that would have seemed 
incredible had we not seen it in divers places. 

" Everybody was in the streets ; animals ran 
wildly about ; children cried ; men and women, 
seized with fright, knew not where to take refuge, 
expecting every moment to be buried under the 
ruins of the houses, or swallowed up in some abyss 
opening under their feet. Some, on their knees in 
the snow, cried for mercy, and others passed the 
night in prayer ; for the earthquake continued 
without ceasing, with a motion much like that of 
a ship at sea, insomuch that sundry persons felt the 
same qualms of stomach which they would feel on 
the water. In the forests the commotion was far 
greater. The trees struck one against the other as 
if there were a battle between them ; and you would 
have said that not only their branches, but even 
their trunks started out of their places and leaped 
on each other with such noise and confusion that 
the Indians said that the whole forest was drunk." 
Mary of the Incarnation gives a similar account 
as does also Frances Juchereau de Saint-] gnace; 
and these contemporary records are sustained to 



1663.] THE EARTHQUAKE. 127 

some extent by the evidence of geology.* A re- 
markable effect was produced on the St. Lawrence, 
which was so charged with mud and clay that for 
many weeks the water was unfit to drink. Con- 
siderable hills and large tracts of forest slid from 
their places, some into the river, and some into 
adjacent valleys. A number of men in a boat near 
Tadoussac stared aghast at a large hiU covered 
with trees, which sank into the water before their 
eyes ; streams were turned from their courses ; 
water-falls were levelled ; springs were dried up in 
some places, while in others new springs appeared. 
Nevertheless, the accounts that have come down to 
us seem a httle exaggerated, and sometimes ludi- 
crously so ; as when, for example. Mother Mary of 
the Incarnation tells us of a man who ran all night 
to escape from a fissure in the earth which opened 
behind him and chased him as he fled. 

It is perhaps needless to say that " spectres and 
phantoms of fire, bearing torches in their hands," 
took part in the convulsion. " The fiery figure of 
a man vomiting flames " also appeared in the air, 
with many other apparitions too numerous to men- 
tion. It is recorded that three young men were on 
their way through the forest to sell brandy to the 
Indians, when one of them, a little in advance of 
the rest, was met by a hideous spectre which nearly 

A Professor Sterry Hunt, whose intimate knowledge of Canadian 
geology is well known, tells me that the shores of the St. Lawrence are to a 
great extent formed of beds of gravel and clay resting on inclined strata 
of rock, 80 that earth-slides would be the necessary result of any convul- 
sion like that of 1663. He adds that the evidence that such slides have 
taken place on a great scale is very distinct at various points along tha 
river, especially at Les Ebouletuens. on the north shore. 



128 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR. [1663 

killed him with fright. He had scarcely strength 
enough to rejoin his companions, who, seeing his 
terror, began to laugh at him. One of them, how- 
ever, presently came to his senses, and said : " This 
is no laughing matter ; we are going to sell liquor to 
the Indians against the prohibitions of the church, 
and perhaps God means to punish our disobedi- 
ence." On this they all turned back. That night 
they had scarcely lain down to sleep when the 
earthquake roused them, and they ran out of their 
hut just in time to escape being swallowed up along 
with it.-"^ 

With every allowance, it is clear that the con- 
vulsion must have been a severe one, and it is 
remarkable that in all Canada not a life was lost. 
The writers of the day see in this a proof that God 
meant to reclaim the guilty and not destroy them. 
At Quebec there was for the time an intense re- 
vival of religion. The end of the world was thought 
to be at hand, and everybody made ready for the 
last judgment. Repentant throngs beset confes- 
sionals and altars j enemies were reconciled ; fasts, 
prayers, and penances filled the whole season of 
Lent. Yet, as we shall see, the devil could still 
find wherewith to console himself. 

It was midsummer before the shocks wholly 
ceased and the earth resumed her wonted calm. 
An extreme drought was followed by floods of 
rain, and then Nature began her sure work of 

1 Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre du 20 Aout, 1663. It appears from 
Morton, Josselyn, and other writers, that the earthquake extended to New 
England and New Netherlands, producing similar effects on the imagi- 
nation of the people. 



1663.] AVAUGOUR RECALLED. 129 

reparation. It was about tliis time that the thorn 
which had plagued the church was at length 
plucked out. Avaugour was summoned home. 
He took his recall with magnanimity, and on his 
way wrote at Gaspe a memorial to Colbert, in 
which he commends New France to the attention 
of the king. " The St. Lawrence," he says, " is 
the entrance to what may be made the greatest 
state in the world;" and, in his purely military 
way, he recounts the means of realizing this 
grand possibihty. Three thousand soldiers should 
be sent to the colony, to be discharged and turned 
into settlers after three years of service. During 
these three years they may make Quebec an im- 
pregnable fortress, subdue the Iroquois, build a 
strong fort on the river where the Dutch have 
a miserable wooden redoubt, caUed Fort Orange 
[^Alhany'], and finally open a way by that river to 
the sea. Thus the heretics will be driven out, and 
the king will be master of America, at a total cost 
of about four hundred thousand francs yearly for 
ten years. He closes his memorial by a short allu- 
sion to the charges against him, and to his forty 
years of faithful service ; and concludes, speaking 
of the authors of his recall, Laval and the Jesuits : 
" By reason of the respect I owe their cloth, I will 
rest content, monseigneur, with assuring you that 
I have not only served the king with fidehty, but 
also, by the grace of God, with very good success, 
considering the means at my disposal."^ He had, 
in truth, borne himself as a brave and experienced 

' Avaugour, Me'moire, Gasp^, 4 Aout 1663. 
9 



130 LAVAL AND AVAUGOUR. [166b. 

soldier; and he soon after died a soldier's death, 
while defending the fortress of Zrin, in Croatia, 
against the Turks.^ 

1 Lettre de Colbert au Marquis de Tracy, 1664. M^moire du Boy, pout 
seiw d'instrudion au Sieur Talon 



CHAPTER Vn. 

1661-1664. 
LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. 

PilEONNB DuMESNIL. — ThB OlD COUNCIL. — ALLEGED MCKDEE. — 

The New Council. — Bourdon and Villekat. — Strong Meas- 
ures. — Escape of Dumesnil. — Views op Colbert. 

Though the proposals of Avaugour's memorial 
were not adopted, it seems to have produced a 
strong impression at court. For this impression 
the minds of the king and his minister had already 
been prepared. Two years before, the inhabitants 
of Canada had sent one of their number, Pierre 
Boucher, to represent their many grievances and 
ask for aid.^ Boucher had had an audience of the 
young king, who listened with interest to his state 
ments ; and when in the following year he returned 
to Quebec, he was accompanied by an officer named 
Dumont, who had under his command a hundred 
soldiers for the colony, and was commissioned to 
report its condition and resources.^ The move- 

^ To promote the objects of his mission, Boucher wrote a little book, 
Histoire Veritable et Naturdle des Moeurs et Productions du Pays de la Nou 
vdle France. He dedicates it to Colbert. 

2 A long journal of Dumont is printed anonymously in the Belatum 
of 1663. 



132 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. f]660-63 

mont seemed to betoken that the government wa;/ 
wakening at last from its long inaction. 

Meanwhile the Company of New France, feudal 
lord of Canada, had also shown signs of returning 
life. Its whole history had been one of mishap, 
followed by discouragement and apathy; and it is 
difficult to say whether its ownership of Canada 
had been more hurtful to itseK or to the colony. 
At the eleventh hour it sent out an agent invested 
with powers of controller-general, intendant, and 
supreme judge, to inquire into the state of its 
affairs. This agent, Peronne Dumesnil, arrived 
early in the autumn of 1660, and set himself with 
great vigor to his work. He was an advocate of 
the Parhament of Paris, an active, aggressive, and 
tenacious person, of a temper well fitted to rip up 
an old abuse or probe a delinquency to the bottom. 
His proceedings qmckly raised a storm at Quebec. 

It may be remembered that, many years before, 
the company had ceded its monopoly of the fui 
trade to the inhabitants of the colony, in considera- 
tion of that annual payment in beaver-skins which 
had been so tardily and so rarely made. The direc- 
tion of the trade had at that time been placed in 
the hands of a council composed of the governor, 
the superior of the Jesuits, and several other mem- 
bers. Various changes had since taken place, and 
the trade was now controlled by another council, 
established without the consent of the company,* 
and composed of the principal persons in the col- 
ony. The members of this council, with certain 

* Jtegistres du Conseil du Roy ; Reponse a la requeste presenile au Roy. 



i6p0-63 I MONOPOLISTS. 133 

prominent merchants in league with them, en- 
grossed all the trade, so that the inhabitants at 
large profited notliing by the right which the com- 
pany had ceded ; ^ and as the councillors controlled 
not only the trade but all the financial affairs of 
Canada, while the remoteness of their scene of 
operations made it difficult to supervise them, they 
were able, with httle risk, to pursue their own 
profit, to the detriment both of the company and 
the colony. They and their allies formed a petty 
trading ohgarchy, as pernicious to the prosperity of 
Canada as the Iroquois war itself. 

The company, always anxious for its beaver- 
skins, made several attempts to control the pro- 
ceedings of the councillors and call them to account, 
but with little success, till the vigorous Dumesnil 
undertook the task, when, to their wrath and con- 
sternation, they and their friends found themselves 
attacked by wholesale accusations of fraud and em- 
bezzlement. That these charges were exaggerated 
there can be Httle doubt ; that they were unfounded 
is incredible, in view of the effect they produced. 

The councillors refused to acknowledge Dumes- 
nil's powers as controller, intendant, and judge, and 
declared his proceedings null. He retorted by 
charging them with usurpation. The excitement 
increased, and Dumesnil's life was threatened. 

He had two sons in the colony. One of them, 
Peronne de Maze, was secretary to Avaugour, then 
on his way up the St. Lawrence to assume the 

1 Arret du Conseil d'Etat, 7 Mars, 1657. Also Papiers d' Argenson, and 
Extrait des Regktres du Conseil d'Etat, 15 Mars, 1656. 



134 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. [1661 

government. The other, Peronne des Touches, 
was with his father at Quebec. Towards the end 
of August tiiis young man was attacked in the 
street in broad daylight, and received a kick which 
proved fatal. He was carried to his father's house, 
where he died on the twenty-ninth. Dumesnil 
charges four persons, all of whom were among 
those into whose affairs he had been prying, with 
having taken part in the outrage ; but it is very 
uncertain who was the immediate cause of Des 
Touches's death. Dumesnil, himself the supreme 
judicial officer of the colony, made complaint to 
the judge in ordinary of the company; but he says 
that justice was refused, the complaint suppressed 
by authority, his allegations torn in pieces, and the 
whole affair hushed.^ 

At the time of the murder, Dumesnil was con- 
fined to his house by illness. An attempt was made 
to rouse the mob against him, by reports that he 
had come to the colony for the purpose of laying 
taxes ; but he sent for some of the excited inhab- 
itants, and succeeded in convincing them that he 
was their champion rather than their enemy. Some 
Indians in the neighborhood were also instigated 
to kill him, and he was, forced to conciliate them 
by presents. 

1 Dumesnil, M€moire. Under date August 31 the Journal des J€suitet 
makes this brief and guarded mention of the affair : " Le fils de Mens. 
du Mesnil . . . fut enterre le mesme iour, tue d'vn coup de pid par N." 
Who is meant by N. it is diflBcult to say. The register of the parish 
church records the burial as follows : — 

"L'an 1661. Le 30 Aoust a este enterr^ au Cemetiere de Quebec 
Michel peronne dit Sr. des Touches fils de Mr. du Mesnil decedd le Jour 
precedent a sa Maison. 



1662-63.] THE NEW GOVERNMENT. 135 

He soon renewed his attacks, and in his quality; 
of intendant called on the councillors and their 
allies to render their accounts, and settle the long 
arrears of debt due to the company. They set hia 
demands at naught. The war continued month 
after month. It is more than hkely that when in 
the spring of 1662 Avaugour dissolved and recon- 
structed the council, his action had reference to 
these disputes ; and it is clear that when in the 
following August Laval sailed for France, one of 
his objects was to restore the tranquillity which 
Dumesnil's proceedings had disturbed. There was 
great need ; for, what with these proceedings and 
the quarrel about brandy, Quebec was a Httle hell 
of discord, the earthquake not having as yet fright- 
ened it into propriety. 

The bishop's success at court was triumphant. 
Not only did he procure the removal of Avaugour, 
but he "vras invited to choose a new governor to 
replace him.^ This was not all ; for he succeeded 
in effecting a complete change in the government 
of the colony. The Company of New France was 
called upon to resign its claims ; ^ and, by a royal 
edict of April, 1663, all power, legislative, judicial, 
and executive, was vested in a council composed 
of the governor whom Laval had chosen, of Laval 
himself, and of five councillors, an attorney-gen- 
eral, and a secretary, to be chosen by Laval and 
the governor jointly.^ Bearing with them blank 

1 La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. V. 

2 See the deliberations and acts to this end in Edits et Ordonnanca 
iimcemant le Canada, 1. 80-32. 

* Edit de Creation da Conseil Supdtieur de Quebec. 



136 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL fl663 

eommissions to be filled with the names of the new 
functionaries^ Laval and his governor sailed for 
Quebec, where they landed on the fifteenth of 
September. With them came one Gaudais-Dupont, 
a royal commissioner instructed to inquire into the 
state of the colony. 

No sooner had they arrived than Laval and 
Mezy, the new governor, proceeded to construct the 
new council. Mezy knew nobody in the colony, 
and was, at this time, completely under Laval's 
influence. The nominations, therefore, were vir- 
tually made by the bishop alone, in whose hands, 
and not in those of the governor, the blank com- 
missions had been placed.^ Thus for the moment 
he had complete control of the government ; that 
is to say, the church was mistress of the civil 
power. 

Laval formed his council as follows : Jean Bour- 
don for attorney-general ; Rouer de Villeray, Juch- 
ereau de la Fert^, Euette d'Auteuil, Le Gardeur 
de Tniy, and Matthieu Damours for councillors; 
and Peuvret de Mesnu for secretary. The royal 
commissioner, Gaudais, also took a prominent place 
at the board.^ This functionary was on the point 
of marrying his niece to a son of Robert Giffard, 

1 Commission actroij€e au Sieur Gaudais. M€moire pour servir d'lnstruc- 
tion au Sieur Gaudais. A sequel to these instructions, marked secret, 
shows that, notwithstanding Laval's extraordinary success in attaining 
his objects, he and the Jesuits were somewliat distrusted. Gaudais is 
directed to make, with great discretion and caution, careful inquiry into 
the bishop's conduct, and witli equal secrecy to ascertain why the Jesuits 
had asked for Avaugour's recall. 

2 As substitute for the intendant, an officer who had been appointed 
but who had not arrived. 



i663.1 THE COUNCIL. 137 

who had a strong interest in suppressing Dumes- 
nil's accusations.^ Dumesnil had laid his statements 
before the commissioner, who quickly rejected 
them, and took part with the accused. 

Of those appointed to the new council, their 
enemy Dumesnil says that they were " incapable 
persons," and their associate Gaudais, in defending 
them against worse charges, declares that they 
were " unlettered, of little experience, and nearly 
all unable to deal with affairs of importance." This 
was, perhaps, unavoidable ; for, except among the 
ecclesiastics, education was then scarcely known in 
Canada. But if Laval may be excused for putting 
incompetent men in office, nothing can excuse 
him for making men charged with gross public 
offences the prosecutors and judges in their own 
cause ; and his course in doing so gives color to the 
assertion of Dumesnil, that he made up the coun- 
cil expressly to shield the accused and smother 
the accusation.^ 

The two persons under the heaviest charges 
received the two most important appointments : 
Bourdon, attorney-general, and Villeray, keeper of 

1 Dumesnil here makes one of the few mistakes I have been able to 
detect in his long memorials. He says that the name of the niece of 
Gaudais was Marie Nau. It was, in fact, Michelle- Titer ese Natt, who mar- 
ried Joseph, son of Robert GiflFard, on the 22d of October, 1663. Dumes- 
nil had forgotten the bride's first name. The elder Giffard was surety for 
Repentigny, whom Dumesnil cliarged with liabihties to the company, 
amounting to 644,700 livres. Giffard was also father-in-law of Juchereau 
de la Ferte', one of the accused. 

2 Dumesnil goes further than this, for he plainly mtimates that the 
removing from power of the company, to whom the accused were respon- 
sible, and the placing in power of a coimcil formed of the accused tham- 
selves, was a device contrived from the first by Laval and the Jesuits, t( 
get their friends out of trouble. 



138 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. [1663 

tlie seals. La Ferte was also one of the a^icusecL^ 
Of Villeray, the governor Argenson had written 
in 1G59 : " Some of his qualities are good enough, 
but confidence cannot be placed in him, on account 
of his instability." ^ In the same year, he had 
been ordered to France, " to purge himself of sun- 
dry crimes wherewith he stands charged." ^ He 
was not yet free of suspicion, having returned to 
Canada under an order to make up and render his 
accounts, which he had not yet done. Dumesnil 
says that he first came to the colony in 1651, as 
valet of the governor Lauson, who had taken him 
from the jail at Rochelle, where he was imprisoned 
for a debt of seventy-one francs, " as appears by 
the record of the jail of date July eleventh in that 
year." From this modest beginning he became in 
time the richest man in Canada.^ He was strong in 
orthodoxy, and an ardent supporter of the bishop 
and the Jesuits. He is alternately praised and 
blamed, according to the partisan leanings of the 
writer. 

1 Bourdon is charged with not having accounted for an immense 
quantity of beaver-skins which had passed through his hands during 
twelve years or more, and which are valued at more than 300,000 livres. 
Other charges are made against him in connection with large sums bor- 
rowed in Lauson's time on account of the colony. In a memorial ad- 
dressed to the king in council, Dumesnil says that, in 1662, Bourdon, 
according to his own accounts, had in his hands 37,516 livres belonging 
to the company, which he still retained. 

Villeray's liabilities arose out of the unsettled accounts of his father- 
in-law, Charles Sevestre, and are set down at more than 600,000 livrea. 
La Ferte's are of a smaller amount. Others of the council were indi- 
rectly involved in the charges. 

2 Lettre d' Argenson, 20 Nov., 1659. 
» Edit du Roy, 13 Mai, 1659. 

* Lettre de Colbert a Frontenac, 17 Mai, 1674. 



1663 J STRONG MEASURES. 139 

Bourdon, though of humble origin, was, perhaps, 
the most intelligent man in the council. He was 
chiefly known as an engineer, but he had also been 
a baker, a painter, a syndic of the inhabitants, 
chief gunner at the fort, and collector of customs 
for the company. "Whether guilty of embezzle- 
ment or not, he was a zealous devotee, and would 
probably have died for his creed. Like Villeray, 
he was one of Laval's stanchest supporters, while 
the rest of the council were also sound in doctrine 
and sure in allegiance. 

Li virtue of their new dignity, the accused now 
claimed exemption from accountability; but this 
was not all. The abandonment of Canada by the 
company, in leaving Dumesnil without support, 
and depriving him of official character, had made 
his charges far less dangerous. Nevertheless, it 
was thought best to suppress them altogether, and 
the first act of the new government was to this 
end. 

On the twentieth of September, the second day 
after the establishment of the council. Bourdon, 
in his character of attorney-general, rose and de- 
manded that the papers of Jean Peronne Dumesnil 
should be seized and sequestered. The council con- 
sented, and, to Complete the scandal, Villeray was 
commissioned to make the seizure in the presence 
of Bourdon. To color the proceeding, it was alleged 
that Dumesnil had obtained certain papers unlaw- 
fully from, the greffe or record office. " As he was 
thought," says Gaudais, "to be a violent man/ 



140 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. 110(53 

Bourdon and Yilleray took with them ten soldiers^ 
well armed, together with a locksmith and the 
secretary of the council. Thus prepared for every 
contingency, they set out on their errand, and 
appeared suddenly at Dumesnil's house between 
seven and eight o'clock in the evening. " The 
aforesaid Sieur Dumesnil," further says Gaudais, 
" did not refute the opinion entertained of his 
violence ; for he made a great noise, shouted roh- 
bers ! and tried to rouse the neighborhood, out- 
rageously abusing the aforesaid Sieur de Villeray 
and the attorney-general, in great contempt of the 
authority of the council, which he even refused to 
recognize." 

They tried to silence him by threats, but with- 
out effect ; upon which they seized him and held 
him fast in a chair; "me," writes the wrathful 
Dumesnil, "who had lately been their judge." 
The soldiers stood over him and stopped his mouth 
while the others broke open and ransacked his 
cabinet, drawers, and chest, from which they took 
all his papers, refusing to give him p>n inventory, or 
to permit any witness to enter the house. Some of 
these papers were private ; among the rest were, he 
says, the charges and specifications, nearly finished, 
for the trial of Bourdon and Villeray, toge ther with 
the proofs of their "peculations, extortions, and 
malversations." The papers were enclosed under 
seal, and deposited in a neighboring house, whence 
they were afterwards removed to the council- 
chamber, and Dumesnil never saw them again. It 



16C3.' DESIGNS OF THE COUNCIL. 141 

may well be believed that this, the inaugural act 
of the new council, was not allowed to appear or. 
its records.' 

On the twenty-first, Villeray made a formal re 
port of the seizure to his colleagues ; upon which, 
"by reason of the insults, violences, and irrever- 
ences therein set forth against the aforesaid Sieur 
de Villeray, commissioner, as also against the 
authority of the council," it was ordered that the 
offending Dumesnil should be put under arrest; 
but Gaudais, as he declares, prevented the order 
from being carried into effect. 

Dumesnil, who says that during the scene at his 
house he had expected to be murdered like his 
son, now, though unsupported and alone, returned 
to the attack, demanded his papers, and was so 
loud in threats of complaint to the king that the 
councU were seriously alarmed. They again decreed 
his arrest and imprisonment ; but resolved to keep 
the decree secret till the morning of the day when 
the last of the returning ships was to sail for France. 
In this ship Dumesnil had taken his passage, and 
they proposed to arrest him unexpectedly on the 
point of embarkation, that he might have no time 
to prepare and despatch a memorial to the court. 
Thus a full year must elapse before his complaints 
could reach the minister, and seven or eight months 
more before a reply could be returned to Canada. 
During this long delay the affair would have time 
to cool. Dumesnil received a secret warning of 

1 The above is drawn from the two memorials of Gaudais and ol 
D imesnil. They do not contradict each other as to the essentia] fiicts. 



142 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. [1663. 

this plan, and accordingly went on board another 
vessel, which was to sail immediately. The council 
caused the six cannon of the battery in the Lower 
Town to be pointed at her, and threatened to sink 
her if she left the harbor; but she disregarded 
them, and proceeded on her way. 

On reaching France, Dumesnil contrived to draw 
the attention of the minister Colbert to his accusa- 
tions, and to the treatment they had brought upon 
him. On this Colbert demanded of Gaudais, who 
had also returned in one of the autumn ships, why 
he had not reported these matters to him. Gaudais 
made a lame attempt to explain his silence, gave 
his statement of the seizure of the papers, answered 
in vague terms some of Dumesnil's charges against 
the Canadian financiers, and said that he had 
nothing to do with the rest. In the following 
spring Colbert wrote as follows to his relative 
Terron, intendant of marine : — 

"I do not know what report M. Gaudais has 
made to you, but family interests and the connec- 
tions which he has at Quebec should cause him 
to be a little distrusted. On his arrival in that 
country, having constituted himself chief of the 
council, he despoiled an agent of the Company of 
Canada of all his papers, in a manner very violent 
and extraordinary, and this proceeding leaves no 
doubt whatever that these papers contained matters 
the knowledge of which it was wished absolutely 
to suppress. I think it will be very proper that 
you should be informed of the statements made by 
this agent, in order that, through him, an exact 



1663.] CHARGES OF DUMESNIL. 143 

tnowledge nicay be acquired of every thing that has 
taken place in the management of affairs." ^ 

Whether Terron pursued the inquiry does not 
appear. Meanwhile new quarrels had arisen at 
Quebec, and the questions of the past were obscured 
in the dust of fresh commotions. Nothing is more 
noticeable in the whole history of Canada, after it 
came under the direct control of the Crown, than 
the helpless manner in which this absolute govern- 
ment was forced to overlook and ignore the dis- 
obedience and rascahty of its functionaries in this 
distant transatlantic dependency. 

As regards Dumesnil's charges, the truth seems 
to be, that the financial managers of the colony, 
being ignorant and unpractised, had kept imper- 
fect and confused accounts, which they themselves 
could not always unravel ; and that some, if not all 
of them, had made ilhcit profits under cover of this 
confusion. That their stealings approached the 
enormous sum at which Dumesnil places them is not 
to be beheved. But, even on the grossly improbable 
assumption of their entire innocence, there can be 
no apology for the means, subversive of all justice, 
by which Laval enabled his partisans and support- 
ers to extricate themselves from embarrassment. 



1 Lettre de Colbert a Terron, Eochelle, 8 Fev., 1664. " II a spolie un 
agent de la Compagnie de Canada de tons ses papiers d'une maniere 
fort violente et extraordinaire, et ce procede ne laisse point a douter 
que dans ces papiers 11 n'y e<it des choses dont on a voulu absolument 
Bupprimer la connaissance." Colbert seems to have received an ex- 
aggerated impression of the part borne bj Gaudais in the seizure ol 
the papers. 



144 LAVAL AND DUMESNIL. [166^ 

Note. — Dumesnil's principal memorial, preserved in the ar- 
chives of the Marine and Colonies, is entitled Memoire concernant les 
Affaires du Canada, qui mofiire et fait voir que sous pretexte de la 
Gloire de Dieu, d' Instruction des Sauvages, de servir le Roy et de 
/aire la nouvelle Colonie, il a ete pris et diverti trois millions de livres 
ou environ. It forms in the copy before me thirty-eight pages of 
manuscript, and bears no address ; but seems meant for Colbert, 
or the council of state. There is a second memorial, which is 
little else than an abridgment of the first. A third, bearing the 
address Au Roy et a nos Seigneurs du Conseil {d'Etat), and signed 
Peronne Dumesnil, is a petition for the payment of 10,132 livres 
due to him by the company for his services in Canada, " ou il a 
perdu son fils assassine par les comptables du dit pays, qui n'ont 
voulu rendre compte au dit suppliant, Intendant, et ont pill6 sa 
maison, ses meubles et papiers le 20 du mois de Septembre dernier, 
dont il y a acte." 

Gaudais, in compliance with the demands of Colbert, gives his 
statement in a long memorial, Le Sieur Gaudais Dupont a Mon- 
seigneur de Colbert, 1664. 

Dumesnil, in his principal memorial, gives a hst of the alleged 
defaulters, with the special charges against each, and the amounts 
for which he reckons them hable. The accusations cover a period 
of ten or twelve years, and sometimes more. Some of them are 
curiously suggestive of more recent "rings." Thus Jean Gloria 
makes a charge of thirty-one hundred hvres (francs) for fireworks 
to celebrate the king's marriage, when the actual cost is said to 
have been about forty hvres. Others are alleged to have embezzled 
the funds of the company, under cover of pretended payments to 
imaginary creditors ; and Argenson himself is said to have eked out 
his miserable salary by drawing on the company for the pay of 
soldiers who did not exist. 

The records of the Council preserve a guarded silence about this 
affair. I find, however, under date 20 Sept., 1663, " Pouvoir k M. 
de Villeray de faire recherche dans la maison d''un nomine du Mes- 
nil des papiers appartenants au Conseil concernant Sa Majesty ; " 
and under date 18 March, 1664, " Ordre pour I'ouverture du coffre 
coutenant les papiers de Dumesnil," and also an " Ordre pour 
mettre I'Inventaire des biens du Sr. Dumesnil entre les mains du 
Sr. Fillion." 



CHAPTER Vm. 

1657-1665. 

LAVAL AM) MfiZY. 

Thk Bishop's Choice. — A Military Zealot. — Hopeful Bgqim 
KINGS. — Signs of Storm. — The Quarrel. — Distress of Mezt.— 
He Refuses to Yield. — His Defeat and Death. 

We have seen that Laval, when at court, had 
been invited to choose a governor to his liking. 
He soon made his selection. There was a j)ious 
officer, Saffray de Mezy, major of the to^Ti and 
citadel of Caen, whom he had well known dm^ing 
his long stay with Bernieres at the Hermitage. 
Mezy was the principal member of the company of 
devotees formed at Caen under the influence of 
Bernieres and his disciples. In his youth he had 
been headstrong and dissolute. Worse still, he had 
been, it is said, a Huguenot ; but both in Hfe and 
doctrine his conversion had been complete, and the 
fervid mysticism of Bernieres acting on his vehe- 
ment nature had transformed him into a red-hot 
zealot. Towards the hermits and their chief he 
showed a docility in strange contrast with his past 
history, and followed their inspirations with an 
ardor which sometimes overleaped its mark. 

10 



146 LAVA.L AND MfiZY. [1657-59. 

Thus a Jacobin monk, a doctor of dhinity, once 
came to preach at the church of St. Paul at Caen ; 
on which, according to their custom, the brother- 
hood of the Hermitage sent two persons to make 
report concerning his orthodoxy. M^zy and an- 
other mihtary zealot, " who," says the narrator, 
" hardly know how to read, and assuredly do not 
know their catechism," were deputed to hear hin 
first sermon ; wherein this Jacobin, having spoken 
of the necessity of the grace of Jesus Christ in 
order to the doing of good deeds, these two wise- 
acres thought that he was preaching Jansenism ; 
and thereupon, after the sermon, the Sieur de 
M6zy went to the proctor of the ecclesiastical court 
and denounced him."^ 

His zeal, though but moderately tempered with 
knowledge, sometimes proved more useful than on 
this occasion. The Jacobin convent at Caen was 
divided against itself. Some of the monks had 
embraced the doctrines taught by Bernieres, while 
the rest held dogmas which he declared to be con- 
trary to those of the Jesuits, and therefore hetero- 
dox. A prior was to be elected, and, with the 
help of Bernieres, his partisans gained the victory, 
choosing one Father Louis, through whom the Her- 
mitage gained a complete control in the convents 
But the adverse party presently resisted, and com- 
plained to the provincial of their order, who came 
to Caen to close the dispute by deposing Father 
Louis. Hearing of his approach, Bernieres asked 

' Nicole, M^moire pour fatre connotstre I'esprtt et la conduite de la Com 
pagnie appellee I' Hermitage. 



166 3. J S AFFRAY DE MifeZY. 147 

aid from his military disciple, and De Mezy sent 
him a squad of soldiers, who guarded the convent 
doors and barred out the provincial.^ 

Among the merits of Mezy, his humility and 
charity were especially admired ; and the people of 
Caen had more than once seen the town major 
staggering across the street with a beggar mounted 
on his back, whom he was bearing dry-shod through 
the mud in the exercise of those virtues.^ In this 
he imitated his master Bernieres, of whom similar 
acts are recorded.^ However dramatic in manifes- 
tation, his devotion was not only sincere but in- 
tense. Laval imagined that he knew him well. 
Above all others, Mezy was the man of his choice ; 
and so eagerly did he plead for him, that the king 
himself paid certain debts which the pious major 
had contracted, and thus left him free to sail for 
Canada. 

His deportment on the voyage was edifying, and 
the first days of his accession were passed in har- 
mony. He permitted Laval to form the new 
council, and supplied the soldiers for the seizure of 
Dumesnil's papers. A question arose concerning 
Montreal, a subject on which the governors and 
the bishop rarely differed in opinion. The present 
instance was no exception to the rule. Mezy re- 
moved Maisonneuve, the local governor, and imme- 
diately replaced him ; the effect being, that whereas 



1 Ibid. 

2 Juchereau, Bistoi're de I'Hotd-Dieu, 149. 

3 See the laudatory notice of Bernieres de Louvigny in the NouveR 
Biographie Universdle. 



148 LAVAL AND MfiZY. [1663 

he had before derived his authority from the seign- 
iors of the island, he now derived it from the 
governor-general. It was a movement in the in- 
terest of centralized power, and as such was cor- 
dially approved by Laval 

The first indication to the bishop and the Jesuits 
that the new governor was not likely to prove in 
their hands as clay in the hands of the potter, is 
said to have been given on occasion of an inter- 
view with an embassy of Iroquois chiefs, to whom 
Mezy, aware of their duplicity, spoke with a deci- 
sion and haughtiness that awed the savages and 
astonished the ecclesiastics. 

He seems to have been one of those natures that 
run with an engrossing vehemence along any chan- 
nel into which they may have been turned. At 
the Hermitage he was all devotee j but climate and 
conditions had changed, and he or his symptoms 
changed with them. He found himself raised sud- 
denly to a post of command, or one which was 
meant to be such. The town major of Caen was 
set to rule over a region far larger than France. 
The royal authority was trusted to his keeping, and 
his honor and duty forbade him to break the trust. 
But when he found that those who had procured 
for him his new dignities had done so that he 
might be an instrument of their will, his ancient 
pride started again into life, and his headstrong 
temper broke out like a long-smothered fire. Laval 
stood aghast at the transformation. His lamb had 
turned wolf. 

What especially stirred the governor's dudgeon 



J664.J THE QUARREL BEGUN. 149 

was the conduct of Bourdon, Yilleraj, and Au- 
teuil, those faithful allies whom Laval had placed on 
the council, and who, as Mezy soon found, were 
wholly in the bishop's interest. On the 13th of 
February he sent his friend Angoville, major of 
the fort, to Laval, with a written declaration to the 
effect that he had ordered them to absent them- 
selves from the council, because, having been 
appointed " on the persuasion of the aforesaid 
Bishop of Petr^ea, who knew them to be wholly his 
creatures, they wish to make themselves masters in 
the aforesaid council, and have acted in divers ways 
against the interests of the Idng and the public for 
the promotion of personal and private ends, and 
have formed and fomented cabals, contrary to their 
duty and their oath of fidelity to his aforesaid 
Majesty."^ He further declares that advantage 
had been taken of the facility of his disposition and 
his ignorance of the country to surprise him into 
assenting to their nomination; and he asks the 
bishop to acquiesce in their expulsion, and join him 
in calhng an assembly of the people to choose others 
in their place. Laval refused; on which Mezy 
caused his declaration to be placarded about Quebec 
and proclaimed by sound of drum. 

The proposal of a public election, contrary as it 
was to the spirit of the government, opposed to the 
edict establishing the council, and utterly odious to 
the young autocrat who ruled over France, gave 

1 Ordre de M. de M€zy de faire sommation a I'Eveque de Petr€e, 13 Fev., 
lo64. Notification du dit Ordre, mene date. (Registre du Conseil 
Superieur. ) 



150 LAVAL AND UtZY. [1664 

Laval a great advantage. "I reply," he wrote, 
" to the request which Monsieur the Governor 
makes me to consent to the interdiction of the 
persons named in his declaration, and proceed to 
the choice of other councillors or oJB&cers by an 
assembly of the people, that neither my conscience 
nor my honor, nor the respect and obedience which 
I owe to the will and commands of the king, nor 
my fidelity and affection to his service, will by any 
means permit me to do so." ^ 

Mezy was deahng with an adversary armed with 
redoubtable weapons. It was intimated to him that 
the sacraments would be refused, and the churches 
closed against him. This threw him into an agony 
of doubt and perturbation ; for the emotional relig- 
ion which had become a part of his nature, though 
overborne by gusts of passionate irritation, was still 
full of life within him. Tossing between the old 
feeling and the new, he took a course which reveals 
the trouble and confusion of his mind. He threw 
himself for counsel and comfort on the Jesuits, 
though he knew them to be one with Laval against 
him, and though, under cover of denouncing sin in 
general, they had lashed him sharply in their ser- 
mons. There is something pathetic in the appeal 
he makes them. For the glory of God and the 
service of the king, he had come, he says, on 
Laval's solicitation, to seek salvation in Canada; 
and being under obligation to the bishop, who had 
reconimended him to the king, he felt bound to 
show proofs of his gratitude on every occasion. 

1 Expanse (ie I'Eveque de Petr^e, 16 Fev., 1664. 



!ft64.1 DISTRESS OF MfiZY. 151 

Yet neither gratitude to a benefactor nor the 
respect due to his character and person should be 
permitted to interfere with duty to the king, " since 
neither conscience nor honor permit us to neglect 
the requirements of our office and betray the in- 
terests of his Majesty, after receiving orders from 
his lips, and making oath of fidehty between his 
hands." He proceeds to say that, having discov- 
ered practices of which he felt obHged to prevent 
the continuance, he had made a declaration expel- 
ling the offenders from office ; that the bishop and 
all the ecclesiastics had taken this declaration as an 
offence ; that, regardless of the king's service, they 
had denounced him as a calumniator, an unjust 
judge, without gratitude, and perverted in con- 
science ; and that one of the chief among them had 
come to warn him that the sacraments would be 
refused and the churches closed against him. 
" This," writes the unhappy governor, " has agi- 
tated our soul with scruples j and we have none 
from whom to seek light save those who are our 
declared opponents, pronoimcing judgment on us 
without knowledge of cause. Yet as our salvation 
and the duty we owe the king are the things most 
important to us on earth, and as we hold them to 
be inseparable the one from the other: and as 
nothing is so certain as death, and nothing so un- 
certain as the hour thereof ; and as there is no time 
to inform his Majesty of what is passing and to 
receive his commands ; and as our soul, though 
conscious of innocence, is always in fear, — we feel 
obliged, despite their opposition, to have recourse 



152 LAVAL AND MifcZY. (1061 

to the reverend father casuists of the House of 
Jesus, to tell us in conscience what we can do for 
the fulfilment of our duty at once to God and to 
<he king."^ 

The Jesuits gave him little comfort. Lalemant, 
th'iir superior, replied by advising him to follow 
the directions of his confessor, a Jesuit, so far as 
the question concerned spiritual matters, adding 
that in temporal matters he had no advice to give.^ 
The distinction was illusory. The quarrel turned 
wholly on temporal matters, but it was a quarrel 
with a bishop. To separate in such a case the 
spiritual obligation from the temporal was beyond 
the skill of Mezy, nor would the confessor have 
helped him. 

Perplexed and troubled as he was, he would 
not reinstate Bourdon and the two councillors. 
The people began to clamor at the interruption 
of justice, for which they blamed Laval, whom a 
recent imposition of tithes had made unpoj^ular. 
Mezy thereupon issued a proclamation, in which, 
after mentioning his opponents as the most subtle 
and artful persons in Canada, he declares that, in 
consequence of petitions sent him from Quebec 
and the neighboring settlements, he had called the 
jjeople to the council chamber, and by their advice 
had appointed the Sieur de Chartier as attorney- 
general in place of Bourdon.^ 

Bourdon replied by a violent appeal from the 

1 M^zy aux PP. J€suites, Fait au Chateau de Quebec ce dernier jour 
de Fevrier, 1664. 

2 Lettre du P. H. Lalemant a Mr. le Gouverneur. 
' Declaration du Sieur de M€zy, 10 Mars, 1664. 



I6fi4.] CONTINUED STRIi^B. 153 

governor to the remaining members of the comicil/ 
on which Mezy declared him excluded from all 
public fmictions whatever, till the king's pleasure 
should be known.^ Thus chmxh and state still 
frowned on each other, and new disputes soon arose 
to widen the breach between them. On the first 
establishment of the council, an order had been 
passed for the election of a mayor and two alder- 
men (echevins) for Quebec, which it was proposed 
to erect into a city, though it had only seventy 
houses and less than a thousand inhabitants. Re- 
pentigny was chosen mayor, and Madry and Char- 
ron aldermen ; but the choice was not agreeable to 
the bishop, and the three functionaries decHned to 
act, influence having probably been brought to bear 
on them to that end. The council now resolved 
that a mayor was needless, and the people were 
permitted to choose a syndic in his stead. These 
municipal elections were always so controlled by 
the authorities that the element of liberty which 
they seemed to represent was httle but a mockery. 
On the present occasion, after an unaccountable 
delay of ten months, twenty-two persons cast their 
votes in presence of the council, and the choice 
fell on Charron. The real question was whether 
the new syndic should belong to the governor or 
to the bishop. Charron leaned to the governor's 
party. The ecclesiastics insisted that the people 
were dissatisfied, and a new election was ordered, 
but the voters did not come. The governor now 

1 Bourdon au Conseil, 13 Mars, 1664. 

2 Ordre da Gouverneur, 13 Mars, 1664. 



154 LAVAL AND MEZY. [IQ&i. 

sent messages to such of the inhabitants as he kne\^ 
to be in his interest, who gathered in the council 
v^-hamber, voted under his eye, and again chose a 
syndic agreeable to him. Laval's party protested 
in vain.^ 

The councillors held office for a year, and the 
year had now expired. The governor and the 
bishop, it will be remembered, had a joint power 
of appointment ; but agreement between them was 
impossible. Laval was for replacing his partisans. 
Bourdon, Villeray, Auteuil, and La Ferte. Mezy 
refused j and on the eighteenth of September he 
reconstructed the council by his sole authority, 
retaining of the old councillors only Amours and 
Tniy, and replacing the rest by Denis, La Tesserie, 
and Peronne de Maze, the surviving son of Dumes- 
nil. Again Laval protested ; but Mezy proclaimed 
his choice by sound of drum, and caused placards 
to be posted, full, according to Father Lalemant, of 
abuse against the bishop. On this he was excluded 
from confession and absolution. He complained 
loudly ; " but our reply was," says the father, 
"that God knew every thing." ^ 

This unanswerable but somewhat irrelevant re- 
sponse failed to satisfy him, and it was possibly on 
this occasion that an incident occurred which is re- 
counted by the bishop's eulogist. La Tour. He says 
that M6zy, with some unknown design, appeared 
before the church at the head of a band of soldiers, 
while Laval was saying mass. The service over, the 
bishop presented himself at the door, on which, to 

' Registre du Conseil Sup&ieur. ' Journal, des J^suitcs, Oct., 166i. 



l664.j MfiZY'S DEFEAT. 155 

the governor's confusion, all the soldiers respect- 
fully saluted him.^ The story may have some 
foundation, but it is not supported by contemporary 
evidence. 

On the Sunday after Mezy's coup d'etat, the 
pulpits resounded with denunciations. The people 
listened, doubtless, with becoming respect ; but 
their sympathies were with the governor ; and he, 
on his part, had made appeals to them at more 
than one crisis of the quarrel. He now fell into 
another indiscretion. He banished Bourdon and 
Villeray, and ordered them home to France. 

They carried with them the instruments of their 
revenge, the accusations of Laval and the Jesuits 
against the author of their woes. Of these accusa- 
tions one alone would have sufficed. Mezy had 
appealed to the people. It is true that he did so 
from no love of popular hberty, but simply to mako 
head against an opponent ; yet the act alone wai3 
enough, and he received a peremptory recall. 
Again Laval had triumphed. He had made on<; 
governor and unmade two, if not three. The 
modest Levite, as one of his biographers calls him 
in his earlier days, had become the foremost power 
in Canada. 

Laval had a threefold strength at court; his 
high birth, his reputed sanctity, and the support 
of the Jesuits. This was not all, for the perma- 
nency of his position in the colony gave him another 
advantage. The governors were named for three 

1 La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. VII. It is charitable to ascribe thii 
writer's many errors to carelessness. 



156 LAVAL AND MEZY. [1665 

years, and could be recalled at any time ; but the 
\dcar apostolic owed his appointment to the Pope, 
and the Pope alone could revoke it. Thus he was 
beyond reach of the royal authority, and the court 
was in a certain sense obliged to conciliate him. 
As for Mezy, a man of no rank or influence, he 
could expect no mercy. Yet, though irritable and 
violent, he seems to have tried conscientiously to 
reconcile conflicting duties, or what he regarded as 
such. The governors and intendants, his succes- 
sors, received, during many years, secret instruc- 
tions from the court to watch Laval, and cautiously 
prevent him from assuming powers which did not 
belong to him. It is likely that similar instruc- 
tions had been given to Mezy,^ and that the attempt 
to fulfil them had aided to embroil him with one 
who was probably the last man on earth with whom 
he would willingly have quarrelled. 

An inquiry was ordered into his conduct ; but a 
voice more potent than the voice of the king had 
called him to another tribunal. A disease, the 
result perhaps of mental agitation, seized upon 
liim and soon brought him to extremity. As he 
lay gasping between life and death, fear and horror 
took possession of his soul. Hell yawned before 
his fevered vision, peopled with phantoms which 
long and lonely meditations, after the discipline of 
Loyola, made real and palpable to his thought. 
He smelt the fumes of infernal brimstone, and 

1 The royal commissioner, Gaudais, who came to Canada with Mezy, 
had, as before mentioned, orders to inquire with gre.it secrecy into th« 
conduct of Laval. The intendant, Talon, who followed immediately 
after, had similar instructions. 



1665] DEATH OF UtZY. 157 

heard the liowlings of the damned. He sa^\ the 
frown of the angry Judge, and the fiery swords of 
avenghig angels, hurhng wretches like himself, 
writhing in anguish and despair, into the guK of 
unutterable woe. He listened to the ghostly coun- 
sellors who besieged his bed, bowed his head in 
penitence, made his peace with the church, asked 
pardon of Laval, confessed to him, and received 
absolution at his hands ; and his late adversaries, 
now benign and bland, soothed him with promises 
of pardon, and hopes of eternal bliss. 

Before he died, he wrote to the Marquis de Tracy, 
newly appointed viceroy, a letter which indicates 
that even in his penitence he could not feel himself 
wholly in the wrong .^ He also left a will in which, 
the pathetic and the quaint are curiously mingled. 
After praying his patron. Saint Augustine, with 
Saint John, Saint Peter, and all the other saints, to 
intercede for the pardon of his sins, he directs that 
his body shall be buried in the cemetery of the 
poor at the hospital, as being unworthy of more 
honored sepulture. He then makes various lega- 
cies of piety and charity. Other bequests follow, 
one of which is to his friend Major Angoville, to 
whom he leaves two hundred francs, his coat oi 
English cloth, his camlet mantle, a pair of new 
shoes, eight shirts with sleeve buttons, his sword 
and belt, and a new blanket for the major's servant. 
Felix Aubert is to have fifty francs, with a gray 
jacket, a small coat of gray serge, " which," sayjj 
the testator, " has been worn for a while," and a 

1 Lettre de M€zy au Marquis de Tracy, 26 Ami 1665. 



158 LAVAL AND MfiZY. [166& 

pair of long white stockings. And in a codicil he 
farther leaves to Angoville his best black coa.t, in 
order that he may wear mourning for him.^ 

His earthly troubles closed on the night of the 
sixth of May. He went to his rest among the 
paupers ; and the priests, serenely triumphant, sang 
requiems over his grave. 

Note. — M6zy sent home charges against the bishop and tho 
Jesuits which seem to have existed in Charlevoix's time, but for 
which, as well as for those made by Laval, I have sought in vain. 

The substance of these mutual accusations is given thus by the 
minister Colbert, in a memorial addressed to the Marquis de Tracy, 
in 1665 : " Les Jesuites I'accusent d'avarice et de violences ; et lui 
qu'ils voulaient entreprendre sur l'autorit6 qui lui a et6 commise 
par le Roy, en sorte que n'ayant que de leurs creatures dans le 
Conseil Souverain, toutes les resolutions s'y prenaient selon leurs 
sentiments." 

The papers cited are drawn partly from the Registres du Conseil 
Superieur, still preserved at Quebec, and partly from the Archives 
of the Marine and Colonies. Laval's admirer, the abb6 La Tour, 
in his eagerness to justify the bishop, says that the quarrel arose 
from a dispute about precedence between M6zy and the intendant, 
and from the ill-humor of the governor because the intendant 
shared the profits of his office. The truth is, that there was no 
intendant in Canada during the term of Me'zy's government. One 
Robert had been appointed to the office, but he never came to the 
colony. The commissioner Gaudais, during the two or three months 
of his stay at Quebec, took the intendant's place at the council- 
board ; but harmony between Laval and M6zy was unbroken till 
after his departure. Other writers say that the dispute arose from 
the old question about brandy. Towards the end of the quarrel 
there was some disorder from this source, but even then the brandy 
question was subordinate to other subjects of strife. 

1 Testament du Steur de M€zy. This will, as well as the letter, is eo 
grossed in the registers of the council. 



CHAPTER IX. 

1662-1680. 
LAVAL AND THE SEMINART. 

Latal's Visit to Court. — The Seminary. — Zeal op the Bisnor. — 

His Eulogists. — Church and State. — Attitude of Laval. 

That memorable journey of Laval to court, 
which caused the dissolution of the Company of 
New France, the establishment of the Supreme 
Council, the recall of Avaugour, and the appoint- 
ment of Mezy, had yet other objects and other 
results. Laval, vicar apostolic and titular bishop 
of Petrsea, wished to become in title, as in fact, 
bishop of Quebec. Thus he would gain an in- 
crease of dignity and authority, necessary, as he 
thought, in his conflicts with the civil power ; " for," 
he wrote to the cardinals of the Propaganda, " 1 
have learned from long experience how little secu- 
rity my character of vicar apostolic gives me against 
those charged with political affairs: I mean the 
officers of the Crown, perpetual rivals and con- 
temners of the authority of the church."^ 



» For a long extract from this letter, copied from the original in the 
archives of the Propaganda at Rome, see Faillon, Colonie Frvtifoiae, 
in. 432 



160 LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY. [1662-80. 

This reason was for the Pope and the cardinals. 
It may well be believed that he held a different 
language to the king. To him he urged that the 
bishopric was needed to enforce order, suppress 
sin, and crush heresy. Both Louis XIV. and the 
queen mother favored his wishes ; ^ but difficulties 
arose and interminable disputes ensued on the 
question, whether the proposed bishopric should 
depend immediately on the Pope or on the Arch- 
bishop of Rouen. It was a revival of the old quar- 
rel of Galilean and ultramontane. Laval, weary of 
hope deferred, at length declared that he would 
leave the colony if he could not be its bishop in 
title ; and in 1674, after eleven years of delay, the 
king yielded to the Pope's demands, and the vicar 
apostolic became first bishop of Quebec. 

If Laval had to wait for his mitre, he found no 
delay and no difficulty in attaining another object 
no less dear to him. He mshed to provide priests 
for Canada, drawn from the Canadian population, 
fed with sound and wholesome doctrine, reared 
under his eye, and moulded by his hand. To this 
end he proposed to estabhsh a seminary at Quebec. 
The plan found favor with the pious king, and a 
decree signed by his hand sanctioned and confirmed 
it. The new seminary was to be a corporation of 
priests under a superior chosen by the bishop ; 
and, besides its functions of instruction, it was vested 
with distinct and extraordinary powers. Laval, 

1 Anne d'Autriche a Laval, 23 Avril, 1662; Louis XIV. au Pape, 28 
Jan., 1664; Louis XIV. au Due de Cr^quy, Ambassadeur a Rome, 28 
June, 1664. 



£6ti2-80.l THE PARISH PRIEST. 161 

ail organizer and a disciplinarian by nature and 
training, would fain subject the priests of his 
diocese to a control as complete as that of monks 
in a convent. In France, the cure or parish priest 
was, with rare exceptions, a fixture in his parish, 
wl ence he could be removed only for grave reasons, 
and through prescribed forms of procedure. Hence 
he was to a certain degree independent of the 
bishop. Laval, on the contrary, demanded that 
the Canadian cure should be removable at his will, 
and thus placed in the position of a missionary, 
to come and go at the order of his superior. In 
fact, the Canadian parishes were for a long time so 
widely scattered, so feeble in population, and so 
miserably poor, that, besides the disciplinary advan- 
tages of this plan, its adoption was at first almost 
a matter of necessity. It added greatly to the 
power of the church ; and, as the colony increased, 
the king and the minister conceived an increasing 
distrust of it. Instructions for the "fixation" of 
the cur^s were repeatedly sent to the colony, and 
the bishop, while professing to obey, repeatedly 
evaded them. Various fluctuations and changes 
took place ; but Laval had built on strong founda- 
tions, and at this day the system of removable 
cures prevails in most of the Canadian parishes. -^ 
Thus he formed his clergy into a family with 



^ On the establishment of the seminary. Mandement de I'Eveque de 
Petrie, pour I'Etablissement du S€minaire de Quebec; Approbation du Roy 
(Edits et Ordonnances, I. 33, 35) ; La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. VI. ; 
Esquisse de la Vie de Laval, Appendix. Various papers bearing on tho. 
Bub.iect are printed in the Canadian AbeiUe, from originals in the archives 
of the seminary. 

11 



102 LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY. [166'2-80 

himself at its head. His seminary, the mother who 
had reared them, was further charged to maintain 
them, nurse them in sickness, and support them in 
old age. Under her maternal roof the tired priest 
found repose among his brethren ; and thither 
every year he repaired from the charge of his 
flock in the wilderness, to freshen his devotion 
and animate his zeal by a season of meditation 
and prayer. 

The difficult task remained to provide the neces- 
sary funds. Laval imposed a tithe of one-thirteenth 
on all products of the soil, or, as afterwards settled, 
on grains alone. This tithe was paid to the sem- 
inary, and by the seminary to the priests. The 
people, unused to such a burden, clamored and 
resisted ; and Mezy, in his disputes with the bishop, 
had taken advantage of their discontent. It be- 
came necessary to reduce the tithe to a twenty- 
sixth, which, as there was httle or no money among 
the inhabitants, was paid in kind. Nevertheless, 
the scattered and impoverished settlers grudged 
even this contribution to the support of a priest 
whom many of them rarely saw ; and the collection 
of it became a matter of the greatest difficulty and 
uncertainty. How the king came to the rescue, 
we shall hereafter see. 

Besides the great seminary where young men 
were trained for the priesthood, there was the 
lesser seminary where boys were educated in the 
hope that they would one day take orders. This 
school began in 1668, with eight French and 
six Indian pupils, in the old house of Madame 



l(3G2-SO.] ENDOWMENTS OF LAVAL. 1G3 

Couillarcl ; but so far as the Indians were concerned 
it was a failure. Sooner or later they all ran wild 
in the woods, carrying with them as fruits of their 
studies a sufficiency of prayers, offices, and chants 
learned by rote, along witli a feeble smattering of 
Latin and rhetoric, which they soon dropped by 
the way. There was also a sort of farm-school 
attached to the seminary, for the training of a 
humbler class of pupils. It was estabhshed at the 
parish of St. Joachim, below Quebec, where the 
children of artisans and peasants were taught farm- 
ing and various mechanical arts, and thoroughly 
grounded in the doctrine and disciphne of the 
church.^ The Great and Lesser Seminary still sub- 
sist, and form one of the most important Roman 
Cathohc institutions on this continent. To them 
has recently been added the Laval University, rest- 
ing on the same foundation, and supported by the 
same funds. 

Whence were these funds derived ? Laval, in 
order to imitate the poverty of the apostles, had 
divested himself of his property before he came to 
Canada ; otherwise there is little doubt that in the 
fulness of his zeal he would have devoted it to hia 
favorite object. But if he had no property he 
had influence, and his family had both influence 
and wealth. He acquired vast grants of land in 
the best parts of Canada. Some of these he sold 
01 exchanged ; others he retained till the yeai 

1 Annates du Petit S^minaire de Quebec, see Abeille, Vol. I. ; Notice His- 
torique sur le Petit Siminaire de Quebec, Thid., Vol. II. ; Notice Historique sur 
la Paroisse de St. Joachim, Ibid., Vol. I. The Aheille is a loumal puly 
lished by the seminary. 



164 LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY. fl662-8a 

1680, when lie gave them, with nearly all else that 
he then possessed, to his seminary at Quebec. The 
lands with which he thus endowed it included the 
seigniories of the Petite Nation, the island of Jesus, 
and Beaupre. The last is of great extent, and at 
the present day of immense value. Beginning a 
few miles below Quebec, it borders the St. Law- 
rence for a distance of sixteen leagues, and is six 
leagues in depth, measured from the river. From 
these sources the seminary still draws an abundant 
revenue, though its seigniorial rights were com- 
muted on the recent extinction of the feudal tenure 
in Canada. 

Well did Laval deserve that his name should 
live in that of the university which a century and 
a half after his death owed its existence to his 
bounty. This father of the Canadian church, who 
has left so deep an impress on one of the commu- 
nities which form the vast population of North 
America, belonged to a type of character to which 
an even justice is rarely done. With the excep- 
tion of the Canadian Garneau, a liberal Catholic, 
those who have treated of him, have seen him 
through a medium intensely Romanist, coloring, 
hiding, and exaggerating by turns both his actions 
and the traits of his character. Tried by the 
Romanist standard, his merits were great; though 
the extraordinary influence which he exercised in 
the affairs of the colony were, as already observed, 
by no means due to his spiritual graces alone. To 
a saint sprung from the haute noblesse, Earth and 
Heaven were alike propitious. When the vicar- 



♦662-80.1 LAVAL'S POSITION. 165 

general Colombiere pronounced his funeral eulogy 
in the sounding periods of Bossuet, he did not fail 
to exhibit him on the ancestral pedestal where his 
virtues would shine with redoubled lustre. " The 
exploits of the heroes of the House of Montmo- 
rency," exclaims the reverend orator, " form one 
of the fairest chapters in the annals of Old France ; 
the heroic acts of charity, humility, and faith, 
achieved by a Montmorency, form one of the fairest 
in the annals of New France. The combats, victo- 
ries, and conquests of the Montmorency in Europe 
would fill whole volumes ; and so, too, would the 
trimnphs won by a Montmorency, in America, over 
sin, passion, and the devil." Then he crowns the 
high-born prelate with a halo of fourfold saintship. 
" It was with good reason that Providence permitted 
him to be called Francis : for the virtues of all the 
saints of that name were combined in him ; the zeal 
of Saint Francis Xavier, the charity of Saint Fran- 
cis of Sales, the poverty of Saint Francis of Assissi, 
the self-mortification of Saint Francis Borgia ; but 
poverty was the mistress of his heart, and he loved 
her with incontrollable transports." 

The stories which Colombiere proceeds to tell of 
Laval's asceticism are confirmed by other evidence, 
and are, no doubt, true. Nor is there any reason- 
able doubt that, had the bishop stood in the place of 
Drebeuf or Charles Lalemant, he would have suf- 
fered torture and death like them. But it was his 
lot to strive, not against infidel savages, but against 
countrymen and Catholics, who had no disposition 
to burn him, and would rather have done him 
reverence than wrong. 



166 LAVAL AND THE SEMINARY. [1662-80 

To comprehend his actions and motives, it is 
necessary to know his ideas in regard to the rela- 
tions of chmxh and state. They were those of 
the extreme iiltramontanes, which a recent Jesuit 
preacher has expressed with tolerable distinctness. 
In a sermon nttered in the Church of Notre Dame, 
at Montreal, on the first of November, 1872, he 
thus announced them. " The supremacy and in- 
fallibility of the Pope ; the independence and liberty 
of the church ; the subordination and submission 
of the state to the church; in case of conflict 
between them, the church to decide, the state to 
submit: for whoever follows and defends these 
principles, life and a blessing; for whoever rejects 
and combats them, death and a curse." ^ 

These were the principles which Laval and the 
Jesuits strove to make good. Christ was to rule 
in Canada through his deputy the bishop, and God's 
law was to triumph over the laws of man. As in 
the halcyon days of Champlain and Montmagny, 
the governor was to be the right hand of the 
church, to wield the earthly sword at her bidding, 
and the council was to be the agent of her high 
behests. 

France was drifting toward the triumph of the 
parti devot, the sinister reign of petticoat and cas- 
sock, the era of Maintenon and Tellier, and the 



1 This sermon was preached by Father Braun, S. J., on occasK n of tho 
" Golden Wedding," or fiftietli anniversary, of Bishop Bourget jf Mon- 
treal. A large body of the Canadian clergy were present, some of whom 
thought his expressions too emphatic. A translation by another Jesuit 
is published in the " Montreal Weekly Herald " of Nov. 2, 1872 ; and 
the above extract is copied verhatim. 



1662-80.1 MENTAL CONDITION OF LAVAL. 167 

fatal atrocities of the dragonnades. Yet the advanc- 
ing tide of priestly domination did not flow smoothly. 
The unparalleled prestige which surrounded the 
throne of the young king, joined to his quarrels 
with the Pope and divisions in the church itself, dis- 
turbed, though they could not check its progress. 
In Canada it was otherwise. The colony had been 
ruled by priests from the beginning, and it only 
remained to continue in her future the law of her 
past. She was the fold of Christ ; the wolf of civil 
government was among the flock, and Laval and 
the Jesuits, watchful shepherds, were doing their 
best to chain and muzzle him. ' 

According to Argenson, Laval had said, "A 
bishop can do what he hkes ; " and his action an- 
swered reasonably well to his words. He thought 
himself above human law. In vindicating the 
assumed rights of the church, he invaded the rights 
of others, and used means from which a healthy 
conscience would have shrunk. AU his thoughts 
and sympathies had run from childhood in ecclesi- 
astical channels, and he cared for nothing outside 
the church. Prayer, meditation, and asceticism had 
leavened and moulded him. During four years he 
had been steeped in the mysticism of the Hermi- 
tage, which had for its aim the annihilation of self, 
and through self-annihilation the absorption into 
Ciod.^ He had passed from a life of visions to a life 
of action. Earnest to fanaticism, he saw but one 
great object, the glory of God on earth. He was 
penetrated by the poisonous casuistry of the Jesuits, 

1 See the maxims of Bernieres published by La Tour 



168 LAVAL AND THE SEMINAR IT. [16(52-80. 

based on the assumption that all means are per- 
mitted when the end is the service of God ; and as 
Laval, in his own opinion, was always doing the 
service of God, while his opponents were always 
doing that of the devil, he enjoyed, in the use of 
means, a latitude of which we have seen him avail 
himself. 



n. 

THE COLONY AISTD THE EXCiTG. 



CHAPTER X. 

1661-1665. 
ROYAL INTERVENTION. 

FONTAINBBLEAU. — LOUIS XIV. — COLBERT. — ThB COMPAlOr Of 

THE West. — Evil Omens. — Action of the King. — Tkacy, 

COURCELLE, AND TaLON. — ThE ReGIMENT OP CaBIGNAN-SaL- 

liiRES. — Tract at Quebec. — Miracles. — A Holt War. 

Leave Canada behind ; cross the sea, and stand, 
on an evening in Jime, by the edge of the forest of 
Fontainebleau. Beyond the broad gardens, above 
the long ranges of moonlit trees, rise the walls 
and pinnacles of the vast chateau ; a shrine of his- 
tory, the gorgeous monument of lines of vanished 
kings, haunted with memories of Capet, Yalois, and 
Bourbon. 

There was little thought of the past at Fon- 
tainebleau in June, 1661. The present was too 
dazzling and too intoxicating; the future, too 
radiant with hope and promise. It was the morn- 
mg of a new reign ; the sun of Louis XIV. was 
rising in splendor, and the rank and beauty of 
France were gathered to pay it homage. A youth- 
ful court, a youthful king ; a pomp and magnifi- 



170 ROYAL INTERVENTION [1661 

cence such as Europe had never seen ; a dehriuui 
of ambition, pleasure, and love, — wrought in man}? 
a young heart an enchantment destined to be 
cruelly broken. Even old courtiers felt the fasci- 
nation of the scene, and tell us of the music at 
evening by the borders of the lake; of the gay 
groups that strolled under the shadowing trees, 
floated in gilded barges on the still water, or 
moved slowly in open carriages around its borders. 
Here was Anne of Austria, the king's mother, and 
Marie Therese, his tender and jealous queen ; his 
brother, the Duke of Orleans, with his bride of 
sixteen, Henriette of England ; and his favorite, 
that vicious butterfly of the court, the Count do 
Guiche. Here, too, were the humbled chiefs of the 
civil war, Beaufort and Conde, obsequious before 
their triumphant master. Louis XIV., the centre 
of all eyes, in the flush of health and vigor, and 
the pride of new-fledged royalty, stood, as he still 
stands on the canvas of Philippe de Champagne, 
attired in a splendor which would have been ef- 
feminate but for the stately port of the youth who 
wore it.^ 

Fortune had been strangely bountiful to him. 
The nations of Europe, exhausted by wars and dis- 
sensions, looked upon him with respect and fear. 
Among weak and weary neighbors, he alone was 
strong. The death of Mazarin had released him 
from tutelage ; feudalism in the person of Conde 

1 On the visit of the court at Fontainebleau in the summer of 1661, 
see M^moii es de Madame de Motteville, M€moires de Madame de La Fayette, 
M^moires de l'Ahb€ de Choisy, and Walckenaer, M€moires sur Madame di 
Sevigti^. 



1661.] LOUIS XIV. 171 

was aljject before him ; lie had reduced his parHa- 
ments to submission ; and, in the arrest of the 
ambitious prodigal Fouquet, he was preparing a 
crushing blow to the financial corruption which 
had devoured France. 

Nature had formed him to act the part of king. 
Even his critics and enemies praise the grace and 
majesty of his presence, and he impressed his 
courtiers with an admiration which seems to have 
been to an astonishing degree genuine. He car- 
ried airs of royalty even into his pleasures ; and, 
while his example corrupted all France, he pro- 
ceeded to the apartments of Montespan or Fon- 
tanges with the majestic gravity of Olympian 
Jove. He was a devout observer of the forms of 
rehgion; and, as the buoyancy of youth passed 
away, his zeal was stimulated by a profound fear 
of the devil. Mazarin had reared him in igno- 
rance ; but his faculties were excellent in their way, 
and, in a private station, would have made him an 
efficient man of business. The vivacity of his 
passions, and his inordinate love of pleasure, were 
joined to a persistent will and a rare power of 
labor. The vigorous mediocrity of his understand- 
ing delighted in grappling with details. His as- 
tonished courtiers saw him take on himself the 
burden of administration, and work at it without 
relenting for more than half a century. Great as 
was his energy, his pride was far greater. As 
king by divine right, he felt himself raised im- 
measurably above the highest of his subjects ; 
butj while vindicating with unparalleled haughti- 



175i ROYAL INTERVENTION. ri661 

aess his claims to supreme authority, he was, at 
the outset, filled with a sense of the duties of hia 
high place, and fired by an ambition to make his 
reign beneficent to France as well as glorious to 
himself. 

Above all rulers of modern times, he was the 
ambodiment of the monarchical idea. The famous 
words ascribed to him, " I am the state," were 
probably never uttered; but they perfectly ex- 
press his spirit. " It is God's will," he wrote in 
1666, "that whoever is born a subject should not 
reason, but obey ; " ^ and those around him were of 
his mind. " The state is in the king," said Bos- 
suet, the great mouthpiece of monarchy ; " the 
will of the people is merged in his will. Oh 
kings, put forth your power boldly, for it is divine 
and salutary to human kind." ^ 

For a few brief years, his reign was indeed salu- 
tary to France. His judgment of men, when not 
obscured by his pride and his passion for flattery, 
was good ; and he had at his service the generals 
and statesmen formed in the freer and bolder epoch 
that had ended with his accession. Among them 
was Jean Baptiste Colbert, formerly the intendant 
of Mazarin's household, a man whose energies 
matched his talents, and who had preserved his 
rectitude in the midst of corruption. It was a 
hard task that Colbert imposed on his proud and 
violent nature to serve the imperious king, mor- 
bidl}'^ jealous of his authority, and resolved to 

1 (Ettvres de Louis XIV., II. 283. 

2 Bossuet, Politique tir€e de I'Ecriiure sainte, .70 (1848). 



1664.] COLBEKT. 173 

accept no initiative but his own. He must counsel 
while seeming to receive counsel, and lead while 
seeming to follow. The new minister bent him- 
self to the task, and the nation reaped the profit. 
A vast system of reform was set in action amid the 
outcries of nobles, financiers, churchmen, and all 
who profited by abuses. The methods of this 
reform were trenchant and sometimes violent, and 
its principles were not always in accord with those 
of modern economic science ; but the good that re- 
sulted was incalculable. The burdens of the labor- 
ing classes were lightened, the public revenues 
increased, and the wholesale plunder of the public 
money arrested with a strong hand. Laws were 
reformed and codified ; feudal tyranny, which still 
subsisted in many quarters, was repressed ; agri- 
culture and productive industry of all kinds were 
encouraged, roads and canals opened, trade stimu- 
lated, a commercial marine created, and a powerful 
navy formed as if by magic. ^ 

It is in his commercial, industrial, and colonial 
poli(!y that the profound defects of the great min- 
ister's system are most apparent. It was a system 
of authority, monopoly, and exclusion, in which 
the government, and not the individual, acted 
always the foremost part. Upright, incorruptible, 
ardent for the public good, inflexible, arrogant, 
and domineering, he sought to drive France into 
paths of prosperity, and create colonies by the 

1 On Colbert, see Clement, Histoire de Colbert. Clement, Lettres d 
M€moires de Colbert; Ch^ruel, Administration monarchique en France, II 
chap, vi- Henri Martin, Histoire de France, XIII., etc. 



174 ROYAL INTER VENTIO^NT [1664 

energy of an imperial will. He feared, and with 
reason, that the want of enterprise and capital 
among the merchants would prevent the broad 
and immediate results at Avhich he aimed ; and, to 
secure these results, he established a series of great 
trading corporations, in which the principles of 
privilege and exclusion were pushed to their utmost 
limits. Prominent among them was the Company 
of the West. The king signed the edict creating 
it on the 24th of May, 1664. Any person in tho 
kingdom or out of it might become a partner by 
subscribing, within a certain time, not less than 
three thousand francs. France was a mere patch 
on the map, compared to the vast domains of the 
new association. Western Africa from Cape Verd 
to the Cape of Good Hope, South America be- 
tween the Amazon and the Orinoco, Cayenne, the 
Antilles, and all New France, from Hudson's Bay 
to Virginia and Florida were bestowed on it for 
ever, to be held of the Crown on the simple condi- 
tion of faith and homage. As, according to the 
edict, the glory of God was the chief object in 
view, the company was required to supply its pos- 
sessions with a sufficient number of priests, and 
diligently to exclude all teachers of false doctrine. 
It was empowered to build forts and war-ships, 
cast cannon, wage war, make peace, establish 
courts, appoint judges, and otherwise to act as 
sovereign within its own domains. A monopoly 
of trade was granted it for forty years.^ Sugar 
from the Antilles, and furs from Canada, were tlie 

1 Edit d'Etahlissement de la Cfntjiagnie des Indes Occidentales. 



.r,G4-G8.] MONOPOLY. 175 

chief source of expected profit ; and Africa was to 
supply the slaves to raise the sugar. Scarcely 
was the grand machine set in motion, when ita 
directors betrayed a narrowness and blindness of 
policy which boded the enterprise no good. Can- 
ada was a chief sufferer. Once more, bound hand 
and foot, she was handed over to a selfish league 
of merchants; monopoly in trade, monopoly in 
religion, monopoly in government. Nobody but 
the company had a right to bring her the necessa- 
ries of life ; and nobody but the company had a 
right to exercise the traffic which alone could give 
her the means of paying for these necessaries. 
Moreover, the supplies which it brought were in- 
sufficient, and the prices which it demanded were 
exorbitant. It was throttling its wretched victim. 
The Canadian merchants remonstrated.^ It was 
clear that, if the colony was to live, the system 
must be changed ; and a change was accordingly 
ordered. The company gave up its monopoly of 
the fur trade, but reserved the right to levy a 
duty of one-fourth of the beaver-skins, and one- 
tenth of the moose-skins : and it also reserved the 
entire trade of Tadoussac ; that is to say, the trade 
of all the tribes between the lower St. Lawrence and 
Hudson's Bay. It retained besides the exclusive 
right of transporting furs in its own ships, thus 
controlHng the commerce of Canada, and discour- 
aging, or rather extinguishing, the enterprise of 
Canadian merchants. On its part, it was required 

* Lettre du Conseil Souverain a Colbert, 1668. 



176 EOYAL INTEKVENTION 1 1664-66. 

to pay governors, judges, and all the colonial offi- 
cials out of the duties which it levied.^ 

Yet the king had the prosperity of Canada at 
heart ; and he proceeded to show his interest in 
her after a manner hardly consistent with his late 
action in handing her over to a mercenary guardian. 
In fact, he acted as if she had still remained under 
his paternal care. He had just conferred the right 
of naming a governor and intendant upon the new 
company ; but he now assumed it himself, the com- 
pany, with a just sense of its own unfitness, readily 
consenting to this suspension of one of its most im- 
portant privileges. Daniel de Remy, Sieur de Cour- 
celle, was appointed governor, and Jean Baptiste 
Talon intendant.^ The nature of this duplicate 
government will appear hereafter. But, before 
appointing rulers for Canada, the king had ap- 
pointed a representative of the Crown for all his 
American domains. The Mar^chal d'Estrades had 
for some time held the title of viceroy for Amer- 
ica J and, as he could not fulfil the duties of that 
office, being at the time ambassador in Holland, 
the Marquis de Tracy was sent in his place, with 
the title of lieutenant-general.' 

1 Arret du Conseil du Roy qui accorde a la Compagnie le quart des castors, 
le dixieme des orignaux et la traite de Tadoussac : Instruction a Monseigneur de 
Tracy et a Messieurs le Gouverneur et I' Intendant. 

This company prospered as little as the rest of Colbert's trading 
companies. Within ten years it lost 3,523,000 livres, besides blighting 
the colonies placed under its control. Recherckes sur les Finances, cited by 
Clement, Histoire de Colbert. 

- Commission de Lieutenant G^n&al en Canada, etc., pour M. de Courcelle, 
23 Mars, 1665 ; Commission d'Intendant de la Justice, Police, et Finances en 
Canada, etc., pour M. Talon, 23 Mars, 1665. 

8 Commission de Lieutenant G€n€ral de l'Am€rique M&idionaU et Sep 
tentrionale pour M. Prouville de Tracy, 19 Nov., 1663. 



1665.J ARRIVAL OF TRACY. 177 

Canada at this time was an object of very con- 
siderable attention at court, and especially in what 
was known as the parti devot. The delations of 
the Jesuits, appealing equally to the spirit of re- 
ligion and the spirit of romantic adventure, had, for 
more than a quarter of a century, been the favor- 
ite reading of the devout, and the visit of Laval at 
court had greatly stimulated the interest they had 
kindled. The letters of Argenson, and especially 
of Avaugour, had shown the vast pohtical possi- 
bilities of the young colony, and opened a vista of 
future glories alike for church and for king. 

So, when Tracy set sail he found no lack of 
followers. A throng of young nobles embarked with 
him, eager to explore the marvels and mysteries oi 
the western world. The king gave him two hundred 
soldiers of the regiment of Carignan-Salieres, and 
promised that a thousand more should follow. 
After spending more than a year in the West In- 
dies, where, as Mother Mary of the Incarnation 
expresses it, " he performed marvels and reduced 
everybody to obedience," he at length sailed up 
the St. Lawrence, and, on the thirtieth of June, 
1665, anchored in the basin of Quebec. The broad, 
white standard, blazoned with the arms of France, 
proclaimed the representative of royalty ; and Point 
Levi and Cape Diamond and the distant Cape 
Tourmente roared back the sound of the saluting 
cannon. All Quebec was on the ramparts or at the 
landing-place, and aU eyes were strained at the 
two vessels as they slowly emptied their crowded 
decks into the boats alongside. The boats at length 

12 



178 ROYAL INTERVENTION. [1665 

drew near, and the lieutenant-general and his suite 
landed on the quay with a pomp such as Quebec 
had never seen before. 

Tracy was a veteran of sixty-two, portly and 
tall, " one of the largest men I ever saw," writes 
Mother Mary ; but he was sallow with disease, for 
fever had seized him, and it had fared ill with him 
on the long voyage. The Chevalier de Chaumont 
walked at his side, and young nobles surrounded 
him, gorgeous in lace and ribbons and majestic in 
leonine wigs. Twenty-four guards in the king's 
livery led the way, followed by four pages and six 
valets ; ^ and thus, while the Frenchmen shouted and 
the Indians stared, the august procession threaded 
the streets of the Lower Town, and chmbed the 
steep pathway that scaled the cliffs above. Breath- 
ing hard, they reached the top, passed on the left 
the dilapidated walls of the fort and the shed of 
mingled wood and masonry which then bore the 
name of the Castle of St. Louis ; passed on the 
right the old house of Couillard and the site of 
Laval's new seminary, and soon reached the square 
betwixt the Jesuit college and the cathedral. The 
bells were ringing in a phrensy of welcome. Laval 
m pontificals, surrounded by priests and Jesuits, 
stood waiting to receive the deputy of the king ; 
and, as he greeted Tracy and offered him the holy 
water, he looked with anxious curiosity to see 
what manner of man he was. The signs were aus- 
picious. The deportment of the lieutenant-general 

^ Jucheroau says that tliis was his constant attendance wlien he went 
abroad. 



i6fi5.| THE REINFOK CEMENT. 179 

left nothing to desire. A-iDrie-dieu had been placed 
for him. He declined it. They offered him a cush- 
ion, but he would not have it ; and, fevered as 
he was, he knelt on the bare pavement with a 
devotion that edified every beholder. Te Deum 
was sung, and a day of rejoicing followed. 

There was good cause. Canada, it was plain, 
was not to be wholly abandoned to a trading com- 
pany. Louis XIV. was resolved that a new France 
should be added to the old. Soldiers, settlers, horses, 
sheep, cattle, young women for wives, were all sent 
out in abundance by his paternal benignity. Before 
the season was over, about two thousand persons 
had landed at Quebec at the royal charge. "At 
length," writes Mother Juchereau, " our joy was 
completed by the arrival of two vessels with Mon- 
sieur de Courcelle, our governor ; Monsieur Talon, 
our intendant, and the last companies of the 
regiment of Carignan." More state and splendoi 
more young nobles, more guards and valets: for 
Courcelle, too, says the same chronicler, " had a 
saperb train; and Monsieur Talon, who naturally 
loves glory, forgot nothing which could do honor 
to the king." Thus a sunbeam from the court fell 
for a moment on the rock of Quebec. Yet all was 
not sunshine; for the voyage had been a tedious 
one, and disease had broken out in the ships. That 
which bore Talon had been a hundred and seven- 
teen days at sea,^ and others were hardly more fortu- 
nate. The hospital was crowded with the sick ; so, 
too, were the church and the neighboring houses j 

* Talon au ministre, 4 Oct., loG5. 



180 HOYAL INTERVENTION. U<^Gb 

and the nuns were so spent witii their labors that 
seven of them were brought to the point of death. 
The priests were busied in converting the Hugue- 
nots, a number of whom were detected among the 
soldiers and emigrants. One of them proved re- 
fractory, declaring with oaths that he would never 
renounce his faith. Falling dangerously ill, he 
was carried to the hospital, where Mother Cath- 
erine de Saint- Augustin bethought her of a plan 
of conversion. She ground to powder a small 
piece of a bone of Father Brebeuf, the Jesuit mar- 
tyr, and secretly mixed the sacred dust with the 
patient's gruel; whereupon, says Mother Juche- 
reau, " this intractable man forthwith became gentle 
as an angel, begged to be instructed, embraced the 
faith, and abjured his errors pubhcly with an ad- 
mirable fervor." ^ 

Two or three years before, the church of Quebec 
had received as a gift from the Pope, the bodies 
or bones of two saints ; Saint Flavian and Saint 
Felicite. They were enclosed in four large coffers 
or reliquaries, and a grand procession was now 
ordered in their honor. Tracy, Courcelle, Talon, 
and the agent of the company, bore the canopy of 
the Host. Then came the four coffers on four 
decorated litters, carried by the principal ecclesi- 
astics. Laval followed in pontificals. Forty-seven 
priests, and a long file of officers, nobles, soldiers, 
and inhabitants, followed the precious relics amid 
the sound of music and the roar of cannon.^ 

1 Le Mercier tells the same story in the Relation of 1665. 

2 Compare Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre, 16 Oct., 1660, with La Tour 
Vie de Laval, chap. x. 



i665.J REGIMENT OF CARIGNAN. 181 

" It is a ravishing thing," says Mother Mary, 
*' to see how marvellously exact is Monsieur de 
Tracy, at all these holy ceremonies, where he is 
always the first to come, for he would not lose a 
single moment of them. He has been seen in 
church for six hours together, without once going 
out." But while the lieutenant-general thus edified 
the colony, he betrayed no lack of qualities equally 
needful in his position. In Canada, as in the West 
Indies, he showed both vigor and conduct. First 
of all, he had been ordered to subdue or destroy 
the Iroquois, and the regiment of Carignan-Sali- 
eres was the weapon placed in his hands for this 
end. Four companies of this corps had arrived 
earl} in the season, four more came with Tracy, 
more yet with Salieres, their colonel, and now the 
number was complete. As with slouched hat and 
plume, bandoleer, and shouldered firelock, these 
bronzed veterans of the Turkish wars marched at 
the tap of drum through the narrow street, or 
mounted the rugged way that led up to the fort, 
the inhabitants gazed with a sense of profound 
relief. Tame Indians from the neighboring mis- 
sions, wild Indians from the woods, stared in silent 
wonder at their new defenders. Their numbers, 
their discipline, their uniform, and their martial 
bearing, filled the savage beholders with admira- 
tion. 

Carignan-Salieres was the first regiment of regu- 
lar troops ever sent to America by the French 
government. It was raised in Savoy by the Prince 
of Carignan in 1644, but was soon employed in the 



L82 ROYAL INTERVENTION. [1666, 

service of France ; where, in 1652, it took a con- 
spicuouij part, on the side of the king, in the battle 
with Conde and the Fronde at the Porte St. 
Antoine. After the peace of the Pyrenees, the 
Prince of Carignan, unable to support the regiment, 
gave it to the king, and it was, for the first time, 
incorporated into the French armies. In 1664, it, 
distinguished itself, as part of the allied force of 
France, in the Austrian war against the Turks. 
In the next year it was ordered to America, along 
with the fragment of a regiment formed of Ger- 
mans, the whole being placed under the command 
of Colonel de Salieres. Hence its double name.^ 

Fifteen heretics were discovered in its ranks, 
and quickly converted.^ Then the new crusade 
was preached ; the crusade against the Iroquois, 
enemies of God and tools of the devil. The sol- 
diers and the people were fiUed with a zeal half 
warlike and half religious. " They are made to 
understand," writes Mother Mary, " that this is a 
holy war, all for the glory of God and the salva- 
tion of souls. The fathers are doing wonders in 
inspiring them with true sentiments of piety and 

1 For a long notice of the regiment of Carignan-Saliferes (Lorraine), 
see Susane, Ancienne Infanterie Franqaise V. 236. The portion of it which 
returned to France from Canada formed a nucleus for the reconstruction 
of the regiment, wliich, under the name of the regiment of Lorraine, 
(lid not cease to exist as a separate organization till 1794. When it came 
to Canada it consisted, says Susane, of about a thousand men, besides 
about two hundred of the other regiment incorporated with it. Compare 
M^moire dn Roy pour servir d'instruction au Sieur Talon, which corresponds 
very nearly with Susano's statement. 

2 Besides these, there was Berthier, a captain, " Voilk " writes Talon to 
the king, " le 16me converti ; ainsi votre Majeste moissonne dejk k pleines 
mains de la gloire pour Dieu, et pour elle bien de la renommee dans toute 
I'etendue de la Chretientp " Leitra au 7 Oct., 1666. 



1665. J A HOLY WAR 183 

devotion. Fully five hundred soldiers have taken 
the scapulary of the Holy Virgin. It is we {the 
Ursulines), who make them ; it is a real pleasure 
to do such work ; " and she proceeds to relate a 
" heau rairade^^ by which God made known his 
satisfaction at the fervor of his military servants. 

The secular motives for the war were in them- 
selves strong enough ; for the growth of the 
colony absolutely demanded the cessation of Iro- 
quois raids, and the French had begun to learn 
the lesson that, in the case of hostile Indians, no 
good can come of attempts to conciliate, unless 
respect is first imposed by a sufiicient castigation. 
It is true that the writers of the time paint Iroquois 
hostiHties in their worst colors. In the innumer- 
able letters which Mother Mary of the Incarnation 
sent home every autumn, by the returning ships, 
she spared no means to gain the sympathy and aid 
of the devout ; and, with similar motives, the 
Jesuits in their printed Relations, took care to 
extenuate nothing of the miseries which the pious 
colony endured. Avaugour, too, in urging the 
sending out of a strong force to fortify and hold 
the country, had advised that, in order to furnish 
a pretext and disarm the jealousy of the English 
and Dutch, exaggerated accounts should be given 
of danger from the side of the savage confederates. 
Yet, with every allowance, these dangers and suffer- 
ings were sufficiently great. 

The three upper nations of the Iroquois were 
comparatively pacific ; but the two lower nations, 
the Mohawks and Oneidas, were persistently hos- 



184 ROYAL INTERVENTION. M665 

tile ; making inroads into the colony by way of 
Lake Champlain and the Richelieu, murdering and 
scalping, and then vanishing like ghosts. Tracy's 
first step was to send a strong detachment to the 
Richelieu to build a picket fort below the rapids 
of Chambly, which take their name from that of 
the officer in command. An officer named Sorel 
soon afterwards built a second fort on the site of 
the abandoned paKsade work built by Montmagny, 
at the mouth of the river, where the town of Sorel 
now stands ; and Salieres, colonel of the regiment, 
added a third fort, two or three leagues above 
Chambly.^ These forts could not wholly bar the 
passage against the nimble and wily warriors who 
might pass them in the night, shouldering their 
canoes through the woods. A blow, direct and 
hard, was needed, and Tracy prepared to strike it. 
Late in the season an embassy from the three 
upper nations — the Onondagas, Cayugas, and 
Senecas — arrived at Quebec, led by Garacontie, a 
famous chief whom the Jesuits had won over, and 
who proved ever after a staunch friend of the 
French. They brought back the brave Charles 
Le Moyne of Montreal, whom they had captured 
some three months before, and now restored as 
a peace-offering, taking credit to themselves that 
^* not even one of his nails had been torn out, nor 
any part of his body burnt." ^ Garacontie made a 



1 See the map in the Relation of 1665. The accompanying text of 

the Relation is incorrect. 

2 Explanation of the eleven Presents of the Iroquois Ambassadors, N, T 
Colonial Docs.. IX. 37 



1665] PACIFIC OVERTURES. 185 

peace speech, which, as rendered by the Jesuits, 
was an admirable specimen of Iroquois eloquence ; 
but, while joining hands with him and his com- 
panions, the French still urged on their prepara- 
tions to chastise the contumacious Mohawks. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1666, 1667. 

THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. 

Courcelle's March. — His Failure and Return. — Courcei.l* 
AND THE Jesuits. — Mohawk Treachery. — Tracy's Expedi 
TiON. — Burning of the Mohawk Towns. — French and Eng 

LISH. DOLLIER DB CaSSON AT St. AnNE. PeACE. ThH 

Jesuits and the Iroquois. 

The governor, Courcelle, says Father Le Mei- 
cier, "breathed nothing but war," and was bent 
on immediate action. He was for the present sub- 
ordinate to Tracy, who, however, forebore to cool 
his ardor, and allowed him to proceed. The result 
was an enterprise bold to rashness. Courcelle, 
with about five hundred men, prepared to march 
in the depth of a Canadian winter to the Mohawk 
towns, a distance estimated at three hundred 
leagues. Those who knew the country, vainly 
urged the risks and difficulties of the attempt. 
The adventurous governor held fast to his pur- 
pose, and only waited till the St. Lawrence should 
be well frozen. Early in January, it was a solid 
floor ; and on the ninth the march began. Officers 
and men stopped at Sillery, and knelt in the 
little mission chapel before the shrine of Saint 



i6G6.] COUECELLE'S MARCH. 187 

JMicliael, to ask the protection and aid of the war- 
Hke archangel; then they resumed their course, 
and, with their snow-shoes tied at their backs, 
walked with difficulty and toil over the bare and 
shppery ice. A keen wind swept the river, and 
the. fierce cold gnawed them to the bone. Ears, 
noses, fingers, hands, and knees were frozen; 
some fell in torpor, and were dragged on by their 
comrades to the shivering bivouac. When, after a 
march of ninety miles, they reached Three Eivers, 
a considerable number were disabled, and had to 
be left behind ; but others joined them from the 
garrison, and they set out again. Ascending th(5 
Richelieu, and passing the new forts at Sorel and 
Chambly, they reached at the end of the month 
the third fort, called Ste. Therese. On the thirtieth 
they left it, and continued their march up the 
frozen stream. About two hundred of them 
were Canadians, and of these seventy were old 
Indian-fighters from Montreal, versed in wood- 
craft, seasoned to the chmate, and trained among 
dangers and alarms. Courcelle quickly learned 
their value, and his "Blue Coats," as he called 
them, were always placed in the van.^ Here, 
wrapped in their coarse blue capotes, with blank- 
ets and provisions strapped at their backs, they 
strode along on snow-shoes, which recent storms 
had made indispensable. The regulars followed 
as they could. They were not yet the tough and 
experienced woodsmen that they and their de- 
scendants afterwards became ; and their snow- 

1 D oilier de Casson, Histoire du Montreal, a.d. 1665, 1666. 



188 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. |1666. 

shoes embarrassed them, burdened as they were 
with the heavy loads which all carried alike, from 
Courcelle to the lowest private. 

Lake Champlain lay glaring in the winter smi, 
a sheet Of spotless snow ; and the wavy ridges of 
the Adirondacks bordered the dazzling landscape 
with the cold gray of their denuded forests. The 
long procession of weary men crept slowly on 
under the lee of the shore ; and when night came 
they bivouacked by squads among the trees, dug 
away the snow with their snow-shoes, piled it in a 
bank around them, built their fire in the middle, 
and crouched about it on beds of spruce or hem- 
lock ; ^ while, as they lay close packed for mutual 
warmth, the winter sky arched them hke a vault 
of burnished steel, sparkhng with the cold diamond 
lustre of its myriads of stars. This arctic serenity 
of the elements was varied at times by heavy 
snow-storms ; and, before they reached their jour- 
ney's end, the earth and the ice were buried to the 
unusual depth of four feet. From Lake Cham- 
plain they passed to Lake George,^ and the frigid 
glories of its snow- wrapped mountains; thence 
crossed to the Hudson, and groped their way 
through the woods in search of the Mohawk 
towns. They soon went astray ; for tliirty Algon- 
quins, whom they had taken as guides, had found 

1 One of the men, telling the story of their sufferings to Daniel Goo- 
kin, of Massachusetts, indicated this as their mode of encamping. Se« 
Mass. Hist. Coll., first series, I. 161. 

2 Carte des grands lacs, Ontario et autres . . . et des pays traversez pat 
MM. de Tracy et Courcelle our aller attaquer les agni€s (Mohawks), 
1666. 



1G66.J FAILURE OF COURCELLE. 189 

the means of a grand debauch at Fort Ste. Therese, 
drunk themselves into helplessness, and lingered 
behind. Thus Courcelle and his men mistook the 
path, and, marching by way of Saratoga Lake and 
Long Lake,^ found themselves, on Saturday the 
twentieth of February, close to the little Dutch 
hamlet of Corlaer or Schenectady. Here the chief 
man in authority told them that most of the 
Mohawks and Oneidas had gone to war with an- 
other tribe. They, however, caught % few strag- 
glers, and had a smart skirmish with a party of 
warriors, losing an officer and several men. Half 
frozen and half starved, they encamped in the 
neighboring woods, where, on Sunday, three en- 
voys appeared from Albany, to demand why they 
had invaded the territories of his Royal Highness 
the Duke of York. It was now that they learned 
for the first time that the New Netherlands had 
passed into Enghsh hands, a change which boded 
no good to Canada. The envoys seemed to take 
their explanations in good part, made them a 
present of wine and provisions, and allowed them 
to buy further supplies from the Dutch of Sche- 
nectady. They even invited them to enter the 
village, but Courcelle dechned, partly because the 
place could not hold them all, and partly because 
he feared that his men, once seated in a chimney- 
corner, could never be induced to leave it. 

Their position was cheerless enough; for the 
vast beds of snow around them were soaking 
slowly under a sullen rain, and there was danger 

. * Carte . . . des pays traversez par MM. de Tracy et Courcelle, etc. 



190 TiiE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [1666, 

that the lakes might thaw and cut off their retreat. 
" Ye Mohaukes," says the old English report of the 
affair, " were all gone to their Castles with resolu- 
tion to fight it out against the french, who, being 
refresht and supplyed w*^ the aforesaid provisions, 
made a shew of marching towards the Mohaukes 
Castles, but with faces about, and great sylence and 
dilligence, return'd towards Cannada." " Surely," 
observes the narrator, " so bould and hardy an 
attempt hath not hapned in any age." ^ The end 
hardly answered to the beginning. The retreat, 
which began on Sunday night, was rather precipi- 
tate. The Mohawks hovered about their rear, and 
took a few prisoners ; but famine and cold proved 
more deadly foes, and sixty men perished before 
they reached the shelter of Fort Ste. Therese. 
On the eighth of March, Courcelle came to the 
neighboring fort of St. Louis or Chambly. Here 
he found the Jesuit Albanel acting as chaplain; 
and, being in great ill humor, he charged him with 
causing the failure of the expedition by detaining 
the Algonquin guides. This singular notion took 
such possession of him, that, when a few days after 
he met the Jesuit Fremin at Three Rivers, he em- 
braced him ironically, saying, at the same time, 
" My father, I am the unluckiest gentleman in 
the world ; and you, and the rest of you, are the 
cause of it." ^ The pious Tracy, and the prudent 



1 A Relation of the Govern^, of Cannada, his March with 600 Vblunteirt 
into y' Territory es of His Roy all Highnesse the Duke ofYorJce in America- 
Ree Doc. Hist. N. Y. I. 71. 

2 Journal des J^suites, Mars, 1666. 



16GG.J MOHAWK TREACHERY. ]91 

Talon, tried to disarm his suspicions, and with such 
success that he gave up an intention he had ente> 
tained of discarding his Jesuit confessor, and for- 
got or forgave the imagined wrong. 

Unfortunate as this expedition was, it produced 
a strong effect on the Iroquois by convincing them 
that their forest homes were no safe asylum from 
French attacks. In May, the Senecas sent an 
embassy of peace ; and the other nations, including 
the Mohawks, soon followed. Tracy, on his part, 
sent the Jesuit Bechefer to learn on the spot the 
real temper of the savages, and ascertain whether 
peace could safely be made with them. The Jesuit 
was scarcely gone when news came that a party of 
officers hunting near the outlet of Lake Champlain 
had been set upon by the Mohawks, and that seven 
of them had been captured or killed. Among the 
captured was Leroles, a cousin of Tracy, and 
among the killed was a young gentleman named 
Chasy, his nephew. 

On this the Jesuit envoy was recalled ; twenty- 
four Iroquois deputies were seized and imprisoned ; 
and Sorel, captain in the regiment of Carignan, was 
sent with three hundred men to chastise the per- 
fidious Mohawks. If, as it seems, he was expected 
to attack their fortified towns or " castles," as the 
English call them, his force was too small. This 
time, however, there was no fighting. At two days 
from his journey's end, Sorel met the famous chief 
called the Flemish Bastard, bringing back Leroles 
and his fellow-captives, and charged, as he alleged, 
to offer full satisfaction for the murder of Chasy. 



192 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [1666. 

Sorel believed him, retraced his course, and with 
the Bastard in his train returned to Quebec. 

Quebec was full of Iroquois deputies, all bent on 
peace or pretending to be so. On the last day of 
August, there was a grand council in the garden 
of the Jesuits. Some days later, Tracy invited the 
Flemish Bastard and a Mohawk chief named Aga- 
riata to his table, when allusion was made to the 
murder of Chasy. On this the Mohawk, stretching 
out his arm, exclaimed in a braggart tone, " This 
is the hand that split the head of that young man." 
The indignation of the company may be imagined. 
Tracy told his insolent guest that he should never 
kill anybody else ; and he was led out and hanged 
in presence of the Bastard.* There was no more 
talk of peace. Tracy prepared to march in person 
against the Mohawks with all the force of Canada. 

On the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, " for 
whose glory," says the chronicler, "this expedi- 
tion is undertaken," Tracy and Courcelle left 
Quebec with thirteen hundred men. They crossed 
Lake Champlain, and launched their boats again on 
the waters of St. Sacrament, now Lake George. 
It was the first of the warlike pageants that have 
made that fair scene historic. October had begun, 
and the romantic wilds breathed the buoyant life 
of the most inspiring of American seasons, when 

1 This story rests chiefly on the authority of Nicolas Perrot, Moeurs 
des Saiwages, 113. La Potherie also tells it, with the addition of the chief's 
name. Golden follows him. The Journal des J^suites mentions that the 
chief who led the murderers of Chasy arrived at Quebec on the sixth of 
September. Marie de ITncarnation mentions the hanging of an Iroauoia 
at Quebec, late in the autumn, for violating the peace. 



I6f)6.1 MARCH OF TKACY. J 93 

the blue-jay screams from the woods ; the wild 
duck splashes along the lake ; and the echoes of 
distant mountains prolong the quavering cry of 
the loon ; when weather-stained rocks are plumed 
with the fiery crimson of the sumac, the claret hues 
of young oaks, the amber and scarlet of the maple, 
and the sober purple of the ash ; or when gleams 
of sunlight, shot aslant through the rents of cool 
autumnal clouds, chase fitfully along the glowing 
sides of painted mountains. Amid this gorgeous 
euthanasia of the dying season, the three hundred 
boats and canoes trailed in long procession up the 
lake, threaded the labyrinth of the Narrows, that 
sylvan fairy-land of tufted islets and quiet waters, 
and landed at length where Fort William Henry 
was afterwards built.^ 

About a hundred miles of forests, swamps, rivers, 
and mountains, still lay between them and the Mo- 
hawk towns. There seems to have been an Indian 
path ; for this was the ordinary route of the Mo- 
hawk and Oneida war-parties : but the path was 
narrow, broken, full of gulHes and pitfalls, crossed 
by streams, and in one place interrupted by a lake 
which they passed on rafts. A hundred and ten 
" Blue Coats," of Montreal, led the way, under 
Charles Le Moyne. Repentigny commanded the 
levies from Quebec. In all there were six hundred 
Canadians ; six hundred regulars ; and a hundred In- 
dians from the missions, who ranged the woods in 
front, flank, and rear, like hounds on the scent. 
Ked or white, Canadians or regulars, all were full 

1 Carte . . . des pays traversez par AIM. de Tracy et Courcelle, etc. 

13 



194 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [16% 

of zeal. " It seems to them," writes Mother Mary, 
" that they are going to lay siege to Paradise, and 
win it and enter in, because they are fighting for 
religion and the faith." ^ Their ardor was rudely 
tried. Officers as well as men carried loads at 
their backs, whence ensued a large blister on the 
shoulders of the Chevalier de Chaumont, in no 
way used to such burdens. Tracy, old, heavy, and 
infirm, was inopportunely seized with the gout. A 
Swiss soldier tried to carry him on his shoulders 
across a rapid stream ; but midway his strength 
failed, and he was barely able to deposit his pon- 
derous load on a rock, A Huron came to his 
aid, and bore Tracy safely to the farther bank. 
Courcelle was attacked with cramps, and had to be 
carried for a time like his commander. Provisions 
gave out, and men and officers grew faint with 
hunger. The Montreal soldiers had for chaplain a 
sturdy priest, D oilier de Casson, as large as Tracy 
jind far stronger ; for the incredible story is told of 
him that, when in good condition, he could hold 
two men seated on his extended hands.^ Now, 
however, he was equal to no such exploit, being 
not only deprived of food, but also of sleep, by the 
necessity of hstening at night to the confessions of 
his pious flock ; and his shoes, too, had failed him, 
nothing remaining but the upper leather, which 
gave him little comfort among the sharp stones. 
He bore up manfuUy, being by nature brave and 

* Marie de I'lncarnation, Lettre du 16 Oct., 1666. 

'^ Graadet, Notice manuscrite sur DoIIier de Casson, extract given by J . 
Viner in appendix to Histoiredu Montreal (Montreal, 1868). 



1666.1 THE MOHAWK TOWNS. 195 

light-hearted ; and, when a servant of the Jesuits 
fell into the water, he threw of£ his cassock and 
leaped after him. His strength gave out, and the 
man was drowned ; but a grateful Jesuit led liim 
aside and requited his efforts with a morsel of 
bread.^ A wood of chestnut-trees full of nuts at 
length stayed the hunger of the famished troops. 
It was Saint Theresa's day when they approached 
the lower Mohawk town. A storm of wind and 
rain set in ; but, anxious to surprise the enemy, 
they pushed on all night amid the moan and roar 
of the forest ; over slippery logs, tangled roots, and 
oozy mosses ; under dripping boughs and through 
saturated bushes. This time there was no want of 
good guides ; and when in the morning they issued 
from the forest, they saw, amid its cornfields, the 
palisades of the Indian stronghold. They had two 
small pieces of cannon brought from the lake by 
relays of men, but they did not stop to use them. 
Their twenty drums beat the charge, and' they ad- 
vanced to seize the place by coup- de-main. Lucidly 
for them, a panic had seized the Indians. Not that 
they were taken by surprise, for they had discov- 
ered the approaching French, and, two days before, 
had sent away their women and children in prep- 
aration for a desperate fight; but the din of the 
drums, which they took for so many devils in the 
French service ; and the armed men advancing from 
the rocks and thickets in files that seemed inter- 
minable, — so wrought on the scared imagination of 
the warriors that they fled in terror to their next 

' Dollier de Casson, Uistoire du Montreal, a.d 1665, 1666. 



196 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [16G6. 

town, a short distance above. Tracy lost no time, 
but hastened in pursuit. A few Mohawks were 
tieen on the hills, yelling and firing too far for 
effect. Eepentigny, at the risk of his scalp, chmbed 
a neighboring height, and looked down on the little 
army, which seemed so numerous as it passed be- 
ueatli, " that," writes the superior of the UrsuJines, 
" he told me that he thought the good angels must 
have joined with it ; whereat he stood amazed." 

The second town or fort was taken as easily as 
the first; so, too, were the third and the fourth. 
The Indians yelled, and fled without killing a man ; 
and still the troops pursued, following the broad 
trail which led from town to town along the valley 
of the Mohawk. It was late in the afternoon when 
the fourth town was entered,^ and Tracy thought 
that his work was done ; but an Algonquin squaw 
who had followed her husband to the war, and who 
had once been a prisoner among the Mohawks, told 
him that there was still another above. The sun 
was near its setting, and the men were tired with 
their pitiless marching; but again the order was 
given to advance. The eager squaw showed the 
way, holding a pistol in one hand and leading 
Courcelle with the other ; and they soon came in 
sight of Andaraque, the largest and strongest of 
the Mohawk forts. The drums beat with fury, and 
the troops prepared to attack, but there were none 
to oppose them. The scouts sent forward, reported 



1 Marie de I'Incamation saj'^s that there were four towns in all ] 
follow the Acte de prise de possession, made on the spot. Five are here 
mentioned. 



K.66] VICTORY. 197 

that the warriors had fled. The last of the savage 
strono-holds was in the hands of the French. 

" God has done for us," says Mother Marj, " what 
he did in ancient days for his chosen people, strik- 
ing terror into our enemies, insomuch that we were 
victors without a blow. Certain it is that there is 
miracle in all this; for, if the Iroquois had stood 
fast, they would have given us a great deal of 
trouble and caused our army great loss, seeing how 
they were fortified and armed, and how haughty 
and bold they are." 

The French were astonished as they looked about 
them. These Iroquois forts were very different 
from those that Jogues had seen here twenty years 
before, or from that which in earlier times set 
Champlain and his Hurons at defiance. The Mo- 
hawks had had counsel and aid from their Dutch 
friends, and adapted their savage defences to the 
rules of European art. Andaraqu^ was a quad- 
rangle formed of a triple palisade, twenty feet high, 
and flanked by four bastions. Large vessels of 
bark filled with water were placed on the plat- 
forms of the palisade for defence against fire. The 
dwelhngs which these fortifications enclosed were 
in many cases built of wood, though the form and 
arrangement of the primitive bark lodge of the 
Iroquois seems to have been preserved. Some of 
the wooden houses were a hundred and twenty 
feet long, with fires for eight or nine famihes. 
Here and in subterranean caches was stored a pro- 
digious quantity of Indian-corn and other provi- 
sions ; and aU the dwellings were supphed with 



198 THE MOHAWKS V.HASTISED. [1666 

carpenters' tools, domestic utensils, and many other 
appliances of comfort. 

The only living things in Andaraqu^, when the 
French entered, were two old women, a small boy, 
and a decrepit old man, who, being frightened by 
the noise of the drums, had hidden himself under 
a canoe. From them the victors learned that the 
Mohawks, retreating from the other, towns, had 
gathered here, resolved to fight to the last ; but at 
sight of the troops their courage failed, and the 
chief was first to run, crying out, " Let us save 
ourselves, brothers; the whole world is coming 
against us." 

A cross was planted, and at its side the royal 
arms. The troops were drawn up in battle array, 
when Jean Baptiste du Bois, an ofiicer deputed by 
Tracy, advancing sword in hand to the front, pro*- 
claimed in a loud voice that he took possession in 
the name of the king of all the country of the 
Mohawks; and the troops shouted three times, 
Vive le Roi} 

That night a mighty bonfire illumined the Mo- 
hawk forests ; and the scared savages from their hid- 
ing-places among the rocks saw their palisades, their 
dwellings, their stores of food, and all their posses- 
sions, turned to cinders and ashes. The two old 
squaws captured in the town, threw themselves in 
despair into the flames of their blazing homes. 
When morning came, there was nothing left of 
Andaraque but smouldering embers, rolling their 
pale smoke against the painted background of the 

* Acte de prist d». possession, 17 Oct., 1666. 



iG6.] ENGLISH JEALOUSY. 199 

October woods. Te Deum was sung and mass said ; 
an i then the victors began their backward march, 
burning, as they went, all the remaining forts, with 
all their hoarded stores of corn, except such as they 
needed for themselves. If they had failed to destroy 
their enemies in battle, they hoped that winter 
and famine would do the work of shot and steel. 

Wliile there was distress among the Mohawks, 
there was trouble among their English neighbors, 
who claimed as their own the country which Tracy 
had invaded. The EngHsh authorities were the 
more disquieted, because they feared that the lately 
conquered Dutch might join hands with the French 
against them. When Nicolls, governor of New 
York, heard of Tracy's advance, he wrote to the 
governors of the New England colonies, begging 
them to join him against the French invaders, and 
urging that, if Tracy's force were destroyed or cap- 
tured, the conquest of Canada would be an easy 
task. There was war at the time between the two 
crowns ; and the British court had already enter- 
tained this project of conquest, and sent orders to 
its colonies to that e:ffect. But the New England 
governors, ill prepared for war, and fearing that 
the:? Indian neighbors, who were enemies of the 
Mohawks, might take part with the French, hesi- 
tated to act, and the affair ended in a correspond- 
ence, civil if not sincere, between Nicolls and Tracy .^ 
The treaty of Breda, in the following year, secured 
peace for a time between the rival colonies. 

1 See the correspondence in N. Y. Col. Docs. III. 118-156. Comrare 
Hutchinson Collection, 407, and Mass. Hist. Coll. XVIII. 102. 



200 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [1636. 

The return of Tracy was less fortunate tlian his 
advance. The rivers, swollen by autumn rains, 
were difficult to pass ; and in crossing Lake Cham- 
plain two canoes were overset in a storm, and 
eight men were drowned. From St. Anne, a new 
fort built early in the summer on Isle La Motte, 
near the northern end of the lake, he sent news of 
his success to Quebec, where there was great re- 
joicing and a solemn thanksgiving. Signs and 
prodigies had not been wanting to attest the inter- 
est of the upper and nether powers in the crusade 
against the myrmidons of hell. At one of the forts 
on the Richelieu, " the soldiers," says Mother Mary, 
" were near dying of fright. They saw a great 
fiery cavern in the sky, and from this cavern came 
plaintive voices mixed with frightful bowlings. 
Perhaps it was the demons, enraged because we 
had depopulated a country where they had been 
masters so long, and had said mass and sung the 
praises of God in a place where there had never 
before been any thing but foulness and abomina- 
tion." 

Tracy had at first meant to abandon Fort St. 
Anne ; but he changed his mind after returning to 
Quebec. Meanwhile the season had grown so late 
that there was no time to send proper supplies to 
the garrison. Winter closed, and the place was 
not only ill provisioned, but was left without a 
priest. Tracy wrote to the superior of the Sulpi- 
tians at Montreal to send one without delay; but 
the request was more easily made than fulfilled, 
for he forgot to order an escort, and the way was 



J666.I THE CUR]fc OF ST. ANNE. 201 

long unci clar.gerous. The stout-hearted Dollier de 
Casson was told, however, to hold himself ready 
to go at the first opportunity. His recent cam- 
paigning had left him in no condition for braving 
fresh hardships, for he was nearly disabled by a 
swelling on one of his knees. By way of cure he 
resolved to try a severe bleeding, and the Sangrado 
of Montreal did his work so thoroughly that his 
patient fainted under his hands. As he returned 
to consciousness, he became aware that two sol- 
diers had entered the room. They told him that 
they were going in the morning to Chambly, 
which was on the way to St. Anne ; and they 
invited him to go with them. " Wait till the day 
after to-morrow," replied the priest, " and I will 
try." The delay was obtained ; and, on the day 
fixed, the party set out by the forest path to 
Chambly, a distance of about four leagues. 
When they reached it, Dolher de Casson was 
nearly spent, but he concealed his plight from the 
commanding officer, and begged an escort to St. 
Anne, some twenty leagues farther. As the officer 
would not give him one, he threatened to go alone, 
on which ten men and an ensign were at last 
ordered to conduct him. Thus attended, he re- 
sumed Ids journey after a day's rest. One of the 
soldiers fell through the ice, and none of his com- 
rades dared help him. DoUier de Casson, making 
the sign of the cross, went to his aid, and, more 
successful than on the former occasion, caught him 
and pulled him out. The snow was deep ; and the 
priest, having arrived in the preceding summer, 



202 THE MOHAWKS CHASHSED. fl6G6, 

had never before worn snow-shoes, while a sack of 
clothing, and his portable chapel which he carried 
at his back, joined to the pain of his knee and the 
effects of his late bleeding, made the march a pur- 
gatory. 

He was sorely needed at Fort St. Anne. There 
was pestilence in the garrison. Two men had just 
died without absolution, while more were at the 
point of death, and praying for a priest. Thus it 
happened that when the sentinel descried far off, 
on the ice of Lake Champlain, a squad of soldiers 
approaching, and among them a black cassock, 
every officer and man not sick, or on duty, came 
out with one accord to meet the new-comer. 
They overwhelmed him with welcome and with 
thanks. One took his sack, another his portable 
chapel, and they led ^im in triumph to the fort. 
First he made a short prayer, then went his rounds 
among the sick, and then came to refresh himself 
with the officers. Here was La Motte de la Luciere, 
the commandant ; La Durantaye, a name destined 
to be famous in Canadian annals ; and a number of 
young subalterns. The scene was no strange one 
to Dollier de Casson, for he had been an officer of 
cavalry in his time, and fought under Turenne ; ^ 
a good soldier, without doubt, at the mess table or 
in the field, and none the worse a priest that he 
had once followed the wars. He was of a lively 
humor, given to jests and mirth ; as pleasant a 
father as ever said Benedicite. The soldier and 

1 Grandet, Notice manuscrite sur Dollier de Casson, extracts from copy 
in possession of the late Jacques Viger. 



lOOtt.) THE CUR£ of ST. ANNE. 203 

the gentleman still lived under the cassock of the 
priest. He was greatly respected and beloved; 
and his influence as a peace-maker, which he often 
had occasion to exercise, is said to have been 
remarkable. When the time demanded it, he 
could use argmnents more cogent than those of 
moral suasion. Once, in a camp of Algonquins, 
when, as he was kneeling in prayer, an insolent 
savage came to interrupt him, the father, without 
rising, knocked the intruder flat by a blow of his 
fist, and the other Indians, far from being dis- 
pleased, were filled with admiration at the ex- 
ploit.i 

His cheery temper now stood him in good stead ; 
for there was dreary work before him, and he was 
not the man to flinch from it. The garrison of 
St. Anne had nothing to live on but salt pork and 
half-spoiled flour. Their hogshead of vinegar had 
sprung aleak, and the contents had all oozed out. 
They had rejoiced in the supposed possession of a 
reasonable stock of brandy; but they soon dis- 
covered that the sailors, on the voyage from 
France, had emptied the casks and filled them 
again with salt-water. The scurvy broke out with 
fury. In a short time, forty out of the sixty men 
became victims of the loathsome malady. Day or 
night, D oilier de Casson and Forestier, the equally 
devoted young surgeon, had no rest. The sur- 
geon's strength failed, and the priest was himself 
slightly attacked with the disease. Eleven men 

1 Grandet, Notice manuscrite sur DoUier de Casson, cited by Faillon^ Cat 
mie Frangaise, III. 395, 396 



204 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. rl665-57 

died ', and others languished for want of help, for 
their comrades shrank from entering the infected 
dens where they lay. In their extremity some of 
them devised an ingenious expedient. Thoug? 
they had nothing to bequeath, they made wills in 
which they left imaginary sums of money to those 
who had befriended them, and thenceforth they 
found no lack of nursing. 

In the intervals of his labors, DoUier de Casson 
would run to and fro for warmth and exercise on 
a certain track of beaten snow, between two of the 
bastions, reciting his breviary as he went, so that 
those who saw him might have thought him out of 
his wits. One day La Motte called out to him as 
he was thus engaged, " Eh, Monsieur le cure, if 
the Iroquois should come, you must defend that 
bastion. My men are all deserting me, and going 
over to you and the doctor." To which the father 
replied, " Get me some litters with wheels, and I 
will bring them out to man my bastion. They 
are brave enough now ; no fear of their running 
away." With banter like this, they sought to 
beguile their miseries ; and thus the winter wore 
on at Fort St. Anne.-^ 

Early in spring they saw a troop of Iroquois 
approaching, and prepared as well as they could to 
make fight ; but the strangers proved to be ambas- 

1 The above curious incidents are told by Dollier de Casson, in his 
ffistoire du Montreal, preserved in manuscript in the Mazarin Library at 
Paris. He gives no hint that the person^ in question wa? himself, but 
speaks of liim as un eccUsiastique. His identity is, however, made certain 
by internal evidence, by a passage in the Notice of Grandet, and by other 
contemporary allusions. 



1601.] JESUITS AND IROQUOIS. 205 

sadors of peace. The destruction of the Mohawk 
towns had produced a deep effect, not on that 
nation alone, but also on the other four members 
of the league. Thej were disposed to confirm the 
promises of peace which they had already made ; 
and Tracy had spurred their good intentions by 
sending them a message that, unless they quickly 
presented themselves at Quebec, he would hang all 
the chiefs whom he had kept prisoners after dis- 
covering their treachery in the preceding summer. 
The threat had its effect : deputies of the Oneidas, 
Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas presently arrived 
in a temper of befitting humility. The Mohawks 
were at first afraid to come : but in April they sent 
the Flemish Bastard with overtures of peace ; and 
in July, a large deputation of their chiefs appeared 
at Quebec. They and the rest left some of their 
families as hostages, and promised that, if any of 
their people should kill a Frenchman, they would 
give them up to be hanged.^ 

They begged, too, for blacksmiths, surgeons, 
and Jesuits to live among them. The presence 
of the Jesuits in their towns was in many ways an 
advantage to them ; while to the colony it was of 
the greatest importance. Not only was conversion 
to the church justly regarded as the best means of 
attaching the Indians to the French, and alienating 
them from the English ; but the Jesuits living in 
the midst of them could influence even those whom 
they could not convert, soothe rising jealousies/ 

1 Lettre du Pere Jean Pierron, de la Compagnie de J^sus, escripte de la 
Motte {Fort Ste. Anne) sur le lac Champlain, le 12nie d'uoust. 1GG7 



206 THE MOHAWKS CHASTISED. [1667. 

counteract English intrigues, and keep the rulers 
of the colony informed of all that was passing in 
the Iroquois towns. Thus, half Christian missiona- 
ries, half political agents, the Jesuits prepared to 
resume the hazardous mission of the Iroquois. 
Fremin and Pierron were ordered to the Mohawks, 
Bruyas to the Oneidas, and three others were named 
for the remaining three nations of the league. The 
troops had made the peace ; the Jesuits were the 
rivets to hold it fast ; and peace endured without 
absolute rupture for nearly twenty years. Of all 
the French expeditions against the Iroquois, that 
of Tracy was the most productive of good. 



CHAPTER Xn. 

1665-1672. 
PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. 

rALON. — Restkiction and Monopoly. — Views op Colbebi. — 
Political Galvanism. — A Father op the Peopib 

Tracy's work was done, and he left Canada with 
the ghttering noblesse in his train. Courcelle and 
Talon remained to rule alone ; and now the great 
experiment was begun. Paternal royalty would 
try its hand at building up a colony, and Talon 
was its chosen agent. His appearance did him no 
justice. The regular contour of his oval face, about 
which fell to his shoulders a cataract of curls, natu- 
ral or supposititious ; the smooth lines of his well- 
formed features, brows delicately arched, and a 
mouth more suggestive of feminine sensibility than 
of masculine force, — would certainly have misled 
the disciple of Lavater.^ Yet there was no want of 
manhood in him. He was most happily chosen 
for the task placed in his hands, and from first to 
last approved himself a vigorous executive officer. 
He was a true disciple of Colbert, formed in his 
school and animated by his spirit. 

1 Ilis portrait is at tlie Hotel Dieu of Quebec. An engraTring from it 
will be found m the third volume of Shea's Charlevoix. 



208 PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. 1166&-7i. 

Being on the spot, he was better able than his 
master to judge the working of the new order of 
things. With regard to the company, he writes 
that it will profit by impoverishing the colony ; 
that its monopolies dishearten the people and par- 
alyze enterjDrise ; that it is thwarting the intentions 
of the king, who wishes trade to be encouraged ; 
and that, if its exclusive privileges are maintained, 
Canada in ten years will be less populous than 
now.^ But Colbert clung to his plan, though he 
wrote in reply that to satisfy the colonists he had 
persuaded the company to forego the monopolies 
for a year.- As this proved insufficient, the com 
pany was at length forced to give up permanently 
its right of exclusive trade, still exacting its share 
of beaver and moose skins. This was its chief 
source of profit ; it begrudged every sou deducted 
from it for charges of government, and the king 
was constantly obhged to do at his own cost that 
which the comj)any should have done. In one 
point it showed a ceaseless activity ; and this was 
the levying of duties, in which it was never known 
to fail. 

Trade, even after its exercise was permitted, 
was continually vexed by the hand of authority. 
One of Tracy's first measures had been to issue a 
decree reducing the price of wheat one half. The 
council took up the work of regulation, and fixed 
the price of all imported goods in three several 
tariffs, — one for Quebec, one for Three Rivers, and 

1 Talon a Colbert, 4 Oct., 1665. 

2 Colbert a Talon, 5 Avril, 1666. 



1665-72.1 COLBERT'S INSTRUCTIONS. 209 

one for Montreal.^ It may well be believed that 
there was m Canada little capital and little enter- 
prise. Industrially and commercially, the colony 
was almost dead. Talon set himself to galvanize 
it; and, if one man could have supplied the intelli- 
gence and energy of a whole community, the results 
would have been triumphant. 

He had received elaborate instructions, and they 
indicate an ardent wish for the prosperity of Canada. 
Colbert had written to him that the true means to 
strengthen the colony was to " cause justice to reign, 
establish a good police, protect the inhabitants, 
discipline them against enemies, and procure for 
them peace, repose, and plenty." ^ " And as," the 
minister further says, " the king regards his Cana- 
dian subjects, from the highest to the lowest, almost 
as his own children, and wishes them to enjoy 
equally with the people of France the mildness and 
happiness of his reign, the Sieur Talon will study 
to solace them in all things and encourage them to 
trade and industry. And, seeing that nothing can 
better promote this end than entering into the 
details of their households and of all their little 
affairs, it will not be amiss that he visit all their 
settlements one after the other in order to learn 
their true condition, provide as much as possi- 
ble for their wants, and, performing the duty of a 
good head of a family, put them in the way of 
making some profit." The intendant was also told 
to encourage fathers to inspire their children with 

1 Tariff of Prices, in N. Y. Colonial Docs. IX. 36 

2 Colbert a Talon, 6 Avril, 1666. 

14 



210 PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. [1665-72 

piety, together with "profound love and respect 
for the royal person of his Majesty." '^ 

Talon entered on his work with admirable zeal. 
Sometimes he used authority, sometimes persuasion, 
sometimes promises of reward. Sometimes, again, 
he tried the force of example. Thus he built a 
ship to show the people how to do it, and rouse 
them to imitation.^ Three or four years later, the 
experiment was repeated. This time it was at the 
cost of the king, who apphed the sum of forty thou- 
sand livres^ to the double purpose of promoting 
the art of ship-building, and saving the colonists 
from vagrant habits by giving them employment. 
Talon wrote that three hundred and fifty men had 
been supplied that summer with work at the charge 
of government.* 

He despatched two engineers to search for coal, 
lead, iron, copper, and other minerals. Important 
discoveries of iron were made ; but three genera- 
tions were destined to pass before the mines were 
successfully worked.^ The copper of Lake Supe- 
rior raised the intendant's hopes for a time, but he 
was soon forced to the conclusion that it was too 
remote to be of practical value. He labored vig- 
orously to develop arts and manufactures ; made 
a barrel of tar, and sent it to the king as a speci- 
men ; caused some of the colonists to make cloth 

1 Instruction au Sieur Talon, 27 Mars, 1665. 

2 Talon a Colbert, Oct., 1667 ; Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev., 1668. 

3 D^peche de Colbert, 11 Fev., 1671. 

* Talon a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1671. 

* Charlevoix speaks of these mines as having been forgotten for 
seventy j^ears, and rediscovered in his time. After passing . through 
various liaii Is, tliey were finally worked on the king's account. 



16G5-72.] ACTIVITY OF TALON. 21 J 

of the wool of the sheep which the king had sent 
out ; encouraged others to estabhsh a tannery, and 
also a factory of hats and of shoes. The Sieur 
FoUin was induced by the grant of a monopoly to 
begin the making of soap and potash.^ The people 
wore ordered to grow hemp,^ and urged to gather 
the nettles of the country as material for cordage ; 
and the Ursulines were supplied with flax and wool, 
in order that they might teach girls to weave and 
spin. 

Talon was especially anxious to establish trade 
between Canada and the West Indies ; and, to make 
a beginning, he freighted the vessel he had built 
with salted cod, salmon, eels, pease, fish-oil, staves, 
and planks, and sent her thither to exchange her 
cargo for sugar, which she was in turn to ex- 
change in France for goods suited for the Canadian 
market.^ Another favorite object with him was 
the fishery of seals and white porpoises for the 
sake of their oil ; and some of the chief merchants 
were urged to undertake it, as well as the estab- 
lishment of stationary cod-fisheries along the Lower 
St. Lawrence. But, with every encouragement, 
many years passed before this valuable industry 
was placed on a firm basis. 

Talon saw with concern the huge consumption 
of wine and brandy among the settlers, costing 
them, as he wrote to Colbert, a hundred thousand 
livres a year; and, to keep this money in tha 

1 R^gistre du Conseil Souverain. 

■■* Marie de I'lncarnation, Cho'ix des Lettres de 871. 

3 Le Mercier, Rel. 1667, 3 ; D^peches de Talon 



212 PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. 13665-72 

colony, lie declared his intention of building a 
brewery. The minister approved the plan, not 
only on economic grounds, but because " the vice 
of drunkenness would thereafter cause no more 
scandal by reason of the cold nature of beer, the 
vapors whereof rarely deprive men of the use 
of judgment."^ The brewery was accordingly 
built, to the great satisfaction of the poorer colo- 
nists. 

Nor did the active intendant fail to acquit him- 
self of the duty of domiciliary visits, enjoined 
upon him by the royal instructions ; a point on 
which he was of one mind with his superiors, for 
he writes that " those charged in this country with 
his Majesty's affairs are under a strict obligation 
to enter into the detail of families." ^ Accordingly 
we learn from Mother Juchereau, that " he studied 
with the affection of a father how to succor the 
poor and cause the colony to grow ; entered into 
the minutest particulars ; visited the houses of the 
inhabitants, and caused them to visit him ; learned 
what crops each one was raising; taught those 
who had wheat to sell it at a profit, helped those 
who had none, and encouraged everybody." And 
D oilier de Casson represents him as visiting in 
turn every house at Montreal, and giving aid from 
the king to such as needed it.^ Horses, cattle, 
sheep, and other domestic animals, were sent out 
at the royal charge in considerable numbers, and 

i Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev., 1668. 

* M€moire de 1667. 

s Histoire du Montreal, a.d. 1666, 1667. 



1665-72.] POLICY OF TALOlf. 213 

distributed gratuitously, with an order that none 
of the young should be killed till the countr}^ was 
sufficiently stocked. Large quantities of goods 
were also sent from the same high quarter. Some 
of these were distributed as gifts, and the rest 
bartered for corn to supply the troops. As the 
intendant perceived that the farmers lost much 
time in coming from their distant clearings to buy 
necessaries at Quebec, he caused his agents to 
furnish them with the king's goods at their own 
houses, to the great annoyance of the merchants 
of Quebec, who complained that their accustomed 
trade was thus forestalled.^ 

These were not the only cares which occupied 
the mind of Talon. He tried to open a road 
across the country to Acadia, an almost impossible 
task, in which he and his successors completely 
failed. Under his auspices, Albanel penetrated to 
Hudson's Bay, and Saint Lusson took possession in 
the king's name of the country of the Upper 
"Lakes. It was Talon, in short, who prepared the 
way for the remarkable series of explorations 
described in another work.^ Again and again 
he urged upon Colbert and the king a measure 
from which, had it taken effect, momentous con- 
sequences must have sprung. This was the pur- 
chase or seizure of New York, involving the 
isolation of New England, the subjection of 
the Iroquois, and the undisputed control of half 
the continent. 

1 Tdm a Colbert, 10 Nov., 1670. 

2 Discovery of the Great West 



214 PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. 11665-72 

Great as were his opportunities of abusing his 
trust, it does not appear that he took advantage 
of them. He held lands and houses in Canada/ 
owned the brewery which he had established, and 
embarked in various enterprises of productive 
industry ; but, so far as I can discover, he is no- 
where accused of making ilhcit gains, and there is 
reason to believe that he acquitted himself of his 
charge with entire fidelity,^ His health failed in 
1668, and for this and other causes he asked for 
his recall. Colbert granted it with strong expres- 
sions of regret ; and when, two years later, he re- 
sumed the intendancy, the colony seems to have 
welcomed his return. 

1 In 1682, the Intendant Meules, in a despatch to the ministei, 
fiiakes a statement of Talon's property in Quebec. The chief items are 
the brewery and a house of some value on the descent of Mountain 
Street. He owned, also, the valuable seigniory, afterwards barony, 
Des Islets, in the immediate neighborhood. 

2 Some imputations against him, not of much weight, are, however, 
made in a memorial of Aubert de la Chesnaye, a merchant of Quebec 



CHAPTER Xm 

1661-1673. 

MAKRIAGE AND POPULATION. 

Bhipment of Emigrants. — Soldier Settlers. — Importation oj 
Wives. — Wedlock. — Summary Methods. — The Mothers 05 
Canada. — Bounties on Marriage. — Celibact Punished. — 
Bounties on Children. — Results. 

The peopling of Canada was due in the main to 
the king. Before the accession of Louis XIV. the 
entire population, priests, nuns, traders, and set- 
tlers, did not exceed twenty-five hundred ; ^ but 
scarcely had he reached his majority when the ship- 
ment of men to the colony was systematically be- 
gun. Even in Argenson's time, loads of emigrants 
sent out by the Crown were landed every year at 
Quebec. The Sulpitians of Montreal also brought 
over colonists to people their seigniorial estate ; the 
same was true on a small scale of one or two other 
proprietors, and once at least the company sent a 
considerable number: yet the government was 
the chief agent of emigration. Colbert did the 
work, and the king paid for it. 

In 1661, Laval wrote to the cardinals of the 
Propaganda, that during the past two years the 

^ Le Clerc, Etablissement de la Foy, II 4 



216 MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. [1661-65 

king liad spent two hundred thousand livres on 
the colony; that, since 1659, he had sent out three 
hundred men a year ; and that he had promised to 
send an equal number every summer during ten 
years.^ These men were sent by squads in mer- 
chant-ships, each one of which was required to 
carry a certain number. In many instances, emi- 
grants were bound on their arrival to enter into 
the service of colonists already established. In 
this case the employer paid them wages, and after 
a term of three years they became settlers them- 
selves.^ 

The destined emigrants were collected by agents 
•m the provinces, conducted to Dieppe or Rochelle, 
and thence embarked. At first men were sent 
from Rochelle itself, and its neighborhood ; but 
Laval remonstrated, declaring that he wanted 
none from that ancient stronghold of heresy.^ 
The people of RocheUe, indeed, found no favor in 
Canada. Another writer describes them as " per- 
sons of little conscience, and almost no religion," 
adding that the Normans, Percherons, Picards, and 
peasants of the neighborhood of Paris, are docile, 
industrious, and far more pious. "It is impor- 
tant," he concludes, " in beginning a new colony, 
to sow good seed." * It was, accordingly, from the 
north-western provinces that most of the emigrant-a 

1 Lettre de Laval envoy€e a Rome. 21 Oct., 1661 (extract in Faillon from 
Archives of the Propaganda). 

- Marie de I'lncarnation, 18 Aout, 1664. These engages were some 
times also brouglit over by private persons. 

3 Colbert a Laval, 18 Mars, 1664. 

• M^moire de 1664 (anonymous'J 



i66^72.| EMIGRANTS. 217 

were drawn.' They seem in tlie mam to have 
been a decent peasantry, though writers who, from 
their position, should have been well informed, 
have denounced them in unmeasured terms.^ 
Some of them could read and write, and somp 
brought with them a little money. 

Talon was constantly begging for more men, 
till Louis XIV. at length took alarm. Colbert 
replied to the over-zealous intendant, that the 
king did not think it expedient to depopulate 
France, in order to people Canada ; that he wanted 
men for his armies ; and that the colony must rely 
chiefly on increase from within. Still the ship- 
ments did not cease ; and, even while tempering 
the ardor of his agent, the king gave another 



1 See a paper by Garneau in Le National of Quebec, 28 October, 1856, 
embodying the results of research among the papers of the early notaries 
of Quebec. The chief emigration was from Paris, Normandy, Poitou, 
Pays d'Aunis, Brittany, and Picardy. Nearly all those from Paris were 
sent by the Icing from houses of charity. 

2 " Une foule d'aventuriers, ramasse's au hazard en France, presque 
tous de la lie du peuple, la plupart obere's de dettes ou charges de crimes." 
etc. La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. IV. " Le vice a oblige la plupart de 
chercher ce pays comme un asile pour se mettre ii convert de leurs crimes," 
Meules, Depeche de 1682. Meules was intendant in that year. Marie 
de ITncarnation, after speaking of the emigrants as of a very mixed 
character, says that it would have been far better to send a few who 
were good Christians, rather than so many who give so much trouble. 
Lettredu—Oct., 1669. 

Le Clerc, on the other hand, is emphatic in praise, calling the early 
colonists, " tres honnetes gens, ayant de la probite, de la droiture, et de la 
religion. . . . L'on a examine et choisi les habitants, et renvoy^ en France 
les personnes vicieuses." If, he adds, any such were left " ils effacaient 
glorieusement par leur penitence les taches de leur premiere condition." 
Charlevoix is almost as strong in praise as La Tour in censure. Both of 
them wrote in the next century. We shall have means hereafter of 
judging between these conflicting statements. 



218 MAERIAGE AND POPULATION 1 1665- 72 

proof how much he had the growth of Canada at 
heart.^ 

The regiment of Carignan-Salieres had been or- 
dered home, with the exception of ^our companies 
kept in garrison/ and a considerable number dis- 
charged in order to become settlers. Of those who 
returned, six companies were, a year or two later, 
sent back, discharged in their turn, and con- 
verted into colonists. Neither men nor officers were 
positively constrained to remain in Canada ; but the 
officers were told that if they wished to please his 
Majesty this was the way to do so ; and both they and 
the men were stimulated by promises and rewards. 
Fifteen hundred livres were given to La Motte, be- 
cause he had married in the country and meant to 
remain there. Six thousand livres were assigned 
to other officers, because they had followed, or were 
about to follow. La Motte's example ; and twelve 
thousand were set apart to be distributed to the 
soldiers under similar conditions.^ Each soldier 
who consented to remain and settle was promised 
a grant of land and a hundred livres in money ; or, 
if he preferred it, fifty livres with provisions for a 
year. This mihtary colonization had a strong and 
In sting influence on the character of the Canadian 
people. 

1 The king had sent out more emigrants than he had promised, to 
judge from the census reports during the years 1666, 1667, and 1668. 
The total population for those years is 3418, 4312, and 5870, respectively. 
A small part of this growth may be set down to emigration not under 
government auspices, and a large part to natural increase, which wai 
enormous at this time, from causes which will soon appear. 

2 Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev., 1668. 

3 Ibid. 



<665-72.1 IMPORTATION OF WIVES. 219 

But if the colony was to grow from within, the 
new settlers must have wives. For some years 
past, the Sulpitians had sent out young women for 
the supply of Montreal ; and the king, on a larger 
scale, continued the benevolent work. Girls for 
the colony were taken from the hospitals of Paris 
and of Lyons, which were not so much hospitals for 
the sick as houses of refuge for the poor. Mother 
Marv writes in 1665 that a hundred had come that 
summer, and were nearly all provided with hus- 
bands, and that two hundred more were to come 
next year. The case was urgent, for the demand 
was great. Complaints, however, were soon heard 
that women from cities made indifferent partners ; 
and peasant girls, healthy, strong, and accustomed 
to field work, were demanded in their place. Peas- 
ant girls were therefore sent, but this was not all. 
Officers as weU as men wanted wives ; and Talon 
asked for a consignment of young ladies. His re- 
quest was promptly answered. In 1667, he writes : 
" They send us eighty-four girls from Dieppe and 
twenty-five from Rochelle ; among them are fifteen 
or twenty of pretty good birth ; several of them 
are really demoiselles, and tolerably well brought 
up." They complained of neglect and hardsliip 
during the voyage. " I shall do what I can to soothe 
their discontent," adds the intendant ; "for if they 
write to their correspondents at home how ill they 
have been treated it would be an obstacle to your 
plan of sending us next year a number of select 
young ladies." ^ 

1 " Des demoiselles bien c .olsies." Talon a Colbert, 27 0<t. 1667. 



220 MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. [1665-72 

Three years later we find him asking for three 
or four more in behalf of certain bachelor officers. 
The response surpassed his utmost wishes ; and he 
wrote again : " It is not expedient to send more 
demoiselles. I have had this year fifteen of them, 
instead of the four I asked for." ^ 

As regards peasant girls, the supply rarely 
equalled the demand. Count Frontenac, Cour- 
celle's successor, complained of the scarcity : " If 
a hundred and fifty girls and as many servants," he 
says, " had been sent out this year, they would 
all have found husbands and masters within a 
month." ^ 

The character of these candidates for matri- 
mony has not escaped the pen of slander. The 
caustic La Hontan, writing fifteen or twenty years 
after, draws the following sketch of the mothers 
of Canada : " After the regiment of Carignan was 
disbanded, ships were sent out freighted with 
girls of indifferent virtue, under the direction of a 
few pious old duennas, who divided them into 
three classes. These vestals were, so to speak, 
piled one on the other in three different haUs, 
Avhere the bridegrooms chose their brides as a 
butcher chooses his sheep out of the midst of the 

1 Talon a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1671. 

2 Frontenac a Colbert, 2 Nov., 1672. This year only eleren girls had 
been sent. The scarcity was due to the indiscretion of Talon, who had 
written to the minister that, as many of the old settlers had daughters 
just becoming marriageable, it would be well, in order that they might 
Snd husbands, to send no more girls from France at present. 

The next year, 1673, the king writes that, though he is involved in a 
great war, which needs all his resources, he has nevertheless sent sixty 
more girls. 



1665-72.] ASPERSIONS OF LA HONTAN. 221 

flock. There was wherewith to content the most 
fantastical in these three harems ; for here were 
to l:)e seen the tall and the short, the blond and 
the brown, the plump and the lean ; everybody, 
in short, found a shoe to fit him. At the end 
of a fortnight not one was left. I am told that the 
plumpest were taken first, because it was thought 
that, being less active, they were more likely to 
keep at home, and that they could resist the winter 
cold better. Those who wanted a wife applied to 
the directresses, to whom they were obhged to 
make known their possessions and means of liveli- 
hood before taking from one of the three classes 
the girl whom they found most to their liking. 
The marriage was concluded forthwith, with the 
help of a priest and a notary, and the next day the 
governor-general caused the couple to be pre- 
sented with an ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair 
of fowls, two barrels of salted meat, and eleven 
crowns in money." ^ 

As regards the character of the girls, there can 
be no doubt that this amusing sketch is, in the 
main, maliciously untrue. Since the colony began, 
it had been the practice to send back to France 
women of the class alluded to by La Hontan, as 
soon as they became notorious.^ Those who were 

1 La Hontan, Nouveaux Voyages, I. 11 (1709). Li some of the iither 
editions, the same account is given in different words, equally lively and 
scandalous. 

2 This is the statement of Boucher, a good authority. A case of the 
Bort in 1658 is mentioned in the correspondence of Argenson. Boucher 
says further, that an assurance of good character was required from the 
relations or friends of the girl who wished to embark. This refers to a 
period anterior to 1663, when Boucher wrote his book. Colbert evidently 
cared for no qualification except the capacity of maternity. 



222 PATERNAL GOVERNMENT. [1665-72 

not taken from institutions of charity usually bo- 
longed to the families of peasants overburdened 
with children, and glad to find the chance of estab- 
lishing them.^ How some of them were obtained 
appears from a letter of Colbert to Harlay, ^Lrch- 
bishop of Eouen. " As, in the parishes about 
Rouen/' he writes, " fifty or sixty girls might be 
found who would be very glad to go to Canada to 
be married, I beg you to employ your credit and 
authority with the cures of thirty or forty of these 
parishes, to try to find in each of them one or two 
girls disposed to go voluntarily for the sake of a 
settlement in life."^ 

Mistakes nevertheless occurred. " Along with 
the honest people," complains Mother Mary, " comes 
a great deal of canaille of both sexes, who cause a 
great deal of scandal." ^ After some of the young 
women had been married at Quebec, it was found 
that they had husbands at home. The priests 

1 T^moupiage de la Mere du Plessis de Sainte-Helene (extract in Faillon). 

^ Colbert a l' Archeveque de Rouen, 27 Fev., 1670. 

That they were not always destitute may be gathered from a passage 
in one of Talon's letters. " Entre les fiUes qu'on fait passer ici il y en a 
qui ont de legitimes et considerables pretentions aux successions de leurs 
parents, rneme entre celles qui sont tirees de I'Hopital General." The 
General Hospital of Paris had recently been established (1656) as a 
house of refuge for the " Bohemians," or vagrants of Paris. The royal 
edict creating it says that "les pauvres mendiants et invalides des deux 
eexes y seraient enfermes pour estre employes aux manufactures et aultres 
travaux selon leur pouvoir." They were gathered by force in the streets 
by a body of special police, called " Archers de I'Hopital." They re- 
sisted at first, and serious riots ensued. In 1662, the General Hospital 
of Paris contained 6262 paupers. See Clement, Histoire de Colbert, 113. 
Mother de Sainte-Helene says that the girls sent from this asylum had 
been there from childhood in charge of nuns. 

'^ " Beaucoup de canaille de I'un et I'autre sexe qtii causent beaucoup 
de scandale." Lettre du — Oct., 1669. 



lfiGr)-72.] THE MOTHERS OF CANADA. 223 

became cautious in tying the matrimonial knot, 
and Colbert thereupon ordered that each girl should 
provide herself with a certificate from the cure or 
magistrate of her parish to the effect that she was 
free to marry. Nor was the practical intendant 
unraindfal of other precautions to smooth the 
path to the desu-ed goal. " The girls destined for 
this country," he writes, " besides being strong and 
healthy, ought to be entirely free from any natural 
blemish or any thing personally repulsive." ^ 

Thus qualified canonically and physically, the 
annual consignment of young women was shipped 
to Quebec, in charge of a matron employed and 
paid by the king. Her task was not an easy one, 
for the troop under her care was apt to consist of 
what Mother Mary in a moment of unwonted levity 
calls " mixed goods." ^ On one occasion the office 
was undertaken by the pious widow of Jean Bour- 
don. Her flock of a hundred and fifty girls, says 
Mother Mary, " gave her no little trouble on the 
voyage ; for they are of all sorts, and some of them 
are very rude and hard to manage." Madame 
Bourdon was not daunted. She not only saw her 
charge distributed and married, but she continued 
ro receive and care for the subsequent ship-loads 
MS they arrived summer after summer. She waa 

» Talm a Colbert, 10 Nov., 1670. 

2 " Une raarchandise melee." Lettre du — 1668. In that year, 1668, 
the king spent 40,000 livres in the shipment of men and girls. In 1669, 
a hundred and fifty girls were sent ; in 1670, a hundred and sixty-five ; 
and Talon asks for a hundred and fifty or two hundred more to supply 
tlie soldiers who had got ready their houses and clearings, and were now 
prepared to marry. The total number of girls sent from 1665 to 1673, 
inclusive, was about a thousand. 



224 MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. ' [16C5-72 

indeed chief among the pious duennas of whom La 
Hontan irreverently speaks. Marguerite Bour- 
geoys did the same good offices for the young 
women sent to Montreal. Here the " king's girls," 
as they were called, were all lodged together in a 
house to which the suitors repaired to make their 
selection. " I was obliged to live there myself," 
writes the excellent nun, " because families were 
to be formed ; " ^ that is to say, because it was she 
who superintended these extemporized unions. 
Meanwhile she taught the girls their catechism, 
and, more fortunate than Madame Bourdon, in- 
spired them with a confidence and affection which 
they retained long after. 

At Quebec, where the matrimonial market was 
on a larger scale, a more ample bazaar was needed. 
That the girls were assorted into three classes, each 
penned up for selection in a separate hall, is a 
statement probable enough in itself, but resting on 
no better authority than that of La Hontan. Be 
this as it may, they were submitted together to 
the inspection of the suitor; and the awkward 
young peasant or the rugged soldier of Carignan 
was required to choose a bride without delay from 
among the anxious candidates. They, on their 
part, were permitted to reject any applicant who 
displeased them, and the first question, we are told, 
which most of them asked was whether the suitor 
had a house and a farm. 

Great as was the call for wives, it was thought 
prudent to stimulate it. The new settler was at once 

* Extract in Faillon, Colonie Franqaise, III. 214. 



16t)5-V2.| BOUNTIES ON MARRIAGE. 225 

enticed and driven into wedlock. Bounties were 
offered on early marriages. Twenty livres were 
given to each youth who married before the age 
of twenty, and to each girl who married before the 
age of sixteen.-^ This, which was called the " king's 
gift," was exclusive of the dowry given by him to 
every girl brought over by his orders. The dowry 
varied greatly in form and value ; but, according 
to Mother Mary, it was sometimes a house with 
provisions for eight months. More often it was 
fifty livres in household supplies, besides a barrel 
or two of salted meat. The royal solicitude ex- 
tended also to the children of colonists already 
established. " I pray you," writes Colbert to 
Talon, " to commend it to the consideration of the 
whole people, that their prosperity, their subsist- 
ence, and all that is dear to them, depend on a 
general resolution, never to be departed from, to 
marry youths at eighteen or nineteen years and 
girls at fourteen or fifteen ; since abundance can 
never come to them except through the abundance 
of men." ^ This counsel was followed by appropri- 
ate action. Any father of a family who, without 
ehowing good cause, neglected to marry his chil- 
dren when they had reached the ages of twenty 
and sixteen was fined ; ^ and each father thus de- 
linquent was required to present himself every six 
months to the local authorities to declare what 

1 Arret du Conseil d'Etat du Roy (see Edits et Ordonnances, I. 67). 

2 Colbert a Talon, 20 Fev., 1668. 

3 Arrets du Conseil d'Etat, 1669 (cited by Faillon) ; Arret du Conseil 
d Etat, 1670 (see Edits et Ordonnances, I. 67); Ordonnance du Roy, 6 Amil^ 
1669. See Clement, Instructions, etc., de Colbert, HI. 2me Partie, 657. 

15 



226 MARRIAGE AND POPULATION 11665-72 

reason, if any, he had for such delay .^ Orders 
were issued, a Httle before the arrival of the yearly 
ships from France, that all single men should marry 
within a fortnight after the landing of the prospec- 
tive brides. No mercy was shown to the obdurate 
bachelor. Talon issued an order forbidding un- 
married men to hunt, fish, trade with the Indians, 
or go into the woods under any pretence whatso- 
ever.^ In short, they were made as miserable as 
possible. Colbert goes further. He writes to th( 
intendant, " those who may seem to have abso- 
lutely renounced marriage should be made to 
bear additional burdens, and be excluded from all 
honors : it would be well even to add some marks 
of infamy."^ The success of these measures was 
complete. " No sooner," says Mother Mary, " have 
the vessels arrived than the young men go to 
get wives; and, by reason of the great number 
they are married by thirties at a time." Through- 
out the length and breadth of Canada, Hymen, 

1 Registre du Conseil Souverain. 

2 Talon au Ministre, 10 Oct., 1670. Colbert highly approves this order. 
Faillon found a case of its enforcement among the ancient records of 
Montreal. In December, 1670, Francois Le Noir, an inhabitant of La 
Chine, was summoned before the judge, because, though a single man, he 
had traded with Indians at his own house. He confessed the fact, but 
protested that he would marry within three weeks after the arriral of 
the vessels from France, or, failing to do so, that he would give a hundred 
and fifty livres to the church of Montreal, and an equal sum to the hos 
pital. On this condition he was allowed to trade, but was still forbidden 
to go into the woods. The next year he kept his word, and married 
Marie Magdeleine Charbonnier, late of Paris. 

The prohibition to go into the woods was probably intended to prevent 
the bachelor from finding a temporary Indian substitute for a French wife. 

8 " II serait k propos de leur augmenter les charges, de les priver de 
tous honneurs. meme d'y ajouter quelque marque d'infamie." Lettre du 
20 Fev.. 1668. 



1665-72] BOUNTIES ON CHILDREN. 227 

if not Cupid, was whipped into a frenzy of 
activity. DoUier de Casson tells us of a widow 
who was married afresh before her late husband 
was buried.^ 

Nor was the fatherly care of the king confined 
to the humbler classes of his colonists. He wished 
to form a Canadian noblesse, to which end early 
marriages were thought needful among officers and 
others of the better sort. The progress of such 
marriages was carefully watched and reported by 
the intendant. We have seen the reward bestowed 
upon La Motte for taking to himself a wife, and 
the money set apart for the brother officers who 
imitated him. In his despatch of October, 1667, 
the intendant announces that two captains are 
already married to two damsels of the coimtry ; 
that a heutenant has espoused a daughter of the 
governor of Three Rivers ; and that " four ensigns 
are in treaty with their mistresses, and are already 
half engaged."^ The paternal care of government, 
one would think, could scarcely go further. 

It did, however, go further. Bounties v^ere 
offered on children. The king, in council, passed 
a decree '*' that in future all inhabitants of the said 
country of Canada who shall have hving children 
to the number of ten, born in lawful wedlock, not 



1 Histoire du Montreal, A.D. 1671, 1672. 

2 "Quatre enseignes sont en pourparler avec leurs mattresses el sent 
lejSi k demi engages." D^peche du 27 Oct., 1667. The lieutenant was 
Rene Gaultier de Varennes, who on the 26th Septemher, 1667, married 
Marie Boucher, daughter of the governor of Three Rivers, aged twelve years. 
One of the children of this marriage was Varennes de la V^rendrye, 
discoverer of the Rocky Mountains. 



228 MAERIAGE AND POPULATION [1665-72 

being priests, monks, or nuns, shall each be paid 
out of the moneys sent by his Majesty to the said 
country a pension of three hundred livres a year, 
and those who shall have twelve children, a pension 
of four hundred livres; and that, to this e:ffect, 
they shall be required to declare the number of 
their children every year in the months of June 
or July to the intendant of justice, police, and 
finance, established in the said country, who, hav- 
ing verified the same, shall order the payment of 
said pensions, one-half in cash, and the other half 
at the end of each year." ^ This was applicable to 
all. Colbert had before offered a reward, intended 
specially for the better class, of twelve hundred 
livres to those who had fifteen children, and eight 
hundred to those who had ten. 

These wise encouragements, as the worthy Fail- 
Ion calls them, were crowned with the desired 
result. A despatch of Talon in 1670 informs the 
minister that most of the young women sent out 
last summer are pregnant already, and in 1671 he 
announces that from six hundred to seven hundred 
children have been born in the colony during the 
year; a prodigious number in view of the small 
population. The climate was supposed to be par- 
ticularly favorable to the health of women, which 

1 Edits et Ordonnances, I. 67. It was thought at this time that the 
Indians, mingled with the French, might become a valuable part of the 
population. The reproductive qualities of Indian women, therefore, 
became an object of Talon's attention, and he reports that they impair 
their fertility by nursing their children longer than is necessary ; " but," 
he adds, " this obstacle to the speedy building up of the colony can be 
overcome by a police regulation." M^moire sur I'Etat Present du 
Canada, 1667, 



I86&-72.] DISAPPOINTMENT. 229 

is somewhat surprising in view of recent American 
experience. " The first reflection I have to make," 
says DoUier de Casson, " is on the advantage that 
women have in this place {Montreal) over men, 
for though the cold is very wholesome to both 
sexes, it is incomparably more so to the female, 
who is almost immortal here." Her fecundity 
matched her longevity, and was the admiration of 
Talon and his successors, accustomed as they were 
1,0 the scanty families of France. 

Why with this great natural increase joined to 
nn immigration which, though greatly diminishing, 
ihd not entirely cease, was there not a correspond- 
ing increase in the population of the colony ? Why, 
more than half a century after the king took 
Canada in charge, did the census show a total of 
less than twenty-five thousand souls ? The reasons 
vvill appear hereafter. 

It is a peculiarity of Canadian immigration, at 
this its most flourishing epoch, that it was mainly 
an immigration of single men and single women. 
The cases in which entire families came over were 
comparatively few.^ The new settler was found 

* The principal emigration of families seems to iiave been in 1669 
when, at the urgency of Talon, then in France, a considerable numbei 
were sent out. In the earlier period the emigration of families was, rela- 
tively, much greater. Thus, in 1634, the physician Giffard brought over 
seven to people his seigniory of Beauport. Before 1663, when the king 
took the colony in hand, the emigrants were for the most part apprenticed 
laborers. 

The zeal with which the king entered into the work of stocking his 
colony is shown by numberless passages in his letters, and those of his 
minister. " The end and the rule of all your conduct," says Colbert to 
the intendant Bouteroue, " should be the increase of the colony ; and on 
this point you should never be satisfied, but labor without ceasing to 



230 MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. [1665-72 

by the king ; sent over by the king ; and supplied 
by the king with a wife, a farm, and sometimes 
with a house. Well did Louis XIY. earn the title 
of Father of New France. But the royal zeal was 
spasmodic. The king was diverted to other cares, 
and soon after the outbreak of the Dutch war in 
1672 the regular despatch of emigrants to Canada 
wellnigh ceased; though the practice of disband- 
ing soldiers in the colony, giving them lands, and 
turning them into settlers, was continued in some 
degree, even to the last. 

find every imaginable expedient for preserving the inhabitants, attracting 
new ones, and multiplying them by marriage." Instruction pour M. 
Bouteroue, 1668. 



CHAPTER XrV. 

1665-1672. 

THE NEW HOME. 

Military Frontier. — The Canadian Settler. — Seioniob and 
Vassal. — Example of Talon. — Plan of Settlement. — As- 
pect OF Canada. — Quebec. — The River Settlements. — 
Montreal. — The Pioneers. 

We have seen the settler landed and married ; 
let us follow him to his new home. At the end of 
Talon's administration, the head of the colony, that 
is to say the island of Montreal and the borders of 
the Richeheu, was the seat of a peculiar coloniza- 
tion, the chief object of which was to protect the 
rest of Canada against Iroquois incursions. The 
lands along the Richeheu, from its mouth to a point 
above Chambly, were divided in large seigniorial 
grants among several officers of the regiment of 
Carignan, who in their turn granted out the land 
to the soldiers, reserving a sufficient portion as 
their own. The officer thus became a kind of 
feudal chief, and the whole settlement a permanent 
military cantonment admirably suited to the object 
in view. The disbanded soldier was practically a 
soldier still, but he was also a farmer and a land- 
holder. 



232 THE NEW HOME. [1665-72. 

Talon had recommended this plan as being in 
accordance with the example of the Romans. " The 
practice of that politic and martial people," he 
wrote, " may, in my opinion, be wisely adopted in 
a country a thousand leagues distant from its 
monarch. And as the peace and harmony of peo- 
ples depend above all things on their fidelity to 
their sovereign, our first kings, better statesmen 
than is commonly supposed, introduced into newly 
conquered countries men of war, of approved trust, 
in order at once to hold the inhabitants to their 
duty within, and repel the enemy from without." ^ 

The troops were accordingly discharged, and 
settled not alone on the Richelieu, but also along 
the St. Lawrence, between Lake St. Peter and 
Montreal, as well as at some other points. The 
Sulpitians, feudal owners of Montreal, adopted a 
similar policy, and surrounded their island with 
a border of fiefs large and small, granted partly to 
officers and partly to humbler settlers, bold, hardy, 
and practised in bush-fighting. Thus a line of 
sentinels was posted around their entire shore, 
ready to give the alarm whenever an enemy 
appeared. About Quebec the settlements, covered 
as they were by those above, were for the most 
part of a more pacific character. 

To return to the Richelieu. The towns and 
villages which have since grown upon its banks 
and along the adjacent shores of the St. Lawrence 
owe their names to these officers of Carignan, an- 
cient lords of the soil : Sorel, Chambly, Saint Ours, 

1 Projets de R€glemens, 1667 (see Edits et O'^donnances, 11. 29). 



1665-72. J MILITARY FRONTIER. 233 

Contrecoeur, Yarennes, Vercheres. Yet let it not 
be supposed that villages sprang up at once. The 
military seignior, vahant and poor as Walter the 
Penniless, was in no condition to work such magic. 
His personal possessions usually consisted of Httle 
but his sword and the money which the king had 
paid liim for marrjdng a wife. A domam varying 
from half a league to six leagues in front on the 
river, and from half a league to two leagues in 
depth, had been freely given him. When he had 
distributed a part of it in allotments to the soldiers, 
a variety of tasks awaited him : to clear and culti- 
vate his land ; to build his seigniorial mansion, often 
a log hut ; to build a fort ; to bmld a chapel ; and 
to build a mill. To do all this at once was impos- 
sible. Chambly, the chief proprietor on the Riche- 
lieu, was better able than the others to meet the 
exigency. He built himself a good house, where, 
with cattle and sheep furnished by the king, he 
lived in reasonable comfort.* The king's fort, close 
at hand, spared him and his tenants the necessity 
of building one for themselves, and furnished, no 
doubt, a mill, a chapel, and a chaplain. His brother 
officers, Sorel excepted, were less fortunate. They 
and their tenants were forced to provide defence 
as well as shelter. Their houses were all built 
together, and surrounded by a pahsade, so as to 
form a little fortified village. The ever-active 
benevolence of the king had aided them in the 
task, for the soldiers were still maintained by him 

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 2 Nov., 1672. Marie de I'lncarnatioii speaks 
of tl^ese officers on the Richelieu as tres honnetes aens 



234 THE NEW HOME. [1665-71^ 

while clearing the lands and building the houses 
destined to be their own ; nor was it till this work 
was done that the provident government despatched 
them to Quebec with orders to bring back wives. 
The settler, thus lodged and wedded, was required 
on his part to aid in clearing lands for those who 
should come after him.^ 

It was chiefly in the more exposed parts of the 
colony, that the houses were gathered together in 
palisaded villages, thus forcing the settler to walk 
or paddle some distance to his farm. He natu- 
rally preferred to build when he could on the front 
of his farm itself, near the river, which supplied 
the place of a road. As the grants of land were 
very narrow, his house was not far from that of 
his next neighbor, and thus a Hue of dwellings was 
ranged along the shore, forming what in local lan- 
guage was called a cote, a use of the word pecuhar 
to Canada, where it still prevails. 

The impoverished seignior rarely built a chapel. 
Most of the early Canadian churches were built 
with funds furnished by the seminaries of Quebec 
or of Montreal, aided by contributions of material 
and labor from the parishioners.^ Meanwhile mass 
was said in some house of the neighborhood by 

1 " Sa Majesty semble pretendre faire la depense entiere pour former 
le commencement des habitations par I'abattis du bois, la culture et 
semence de deux arpens de terre, I'avance de quelques farines aux fa- 
milies venantes," etc., etc. Projets de R^glemens, 1667. This applied to 
civil and military settlers alike. The established settler was allowed forur 
years to clear two arpents of land for a new-comer. The soldiers were 
maintained by the king during a year, while preparing their farms and 
bouses. Talon asks that two years more be given them. Talon au Roif, 
10 Nov., 1670. 

1 La Tour, Vie de Laval, chap. x. 



fo6n-72J MODEL SEIGNIORY. 235 

a iiiissioDaiy priest, paddling his canoe from village 
to village, or from cote to cote. 

The mill was an object of the last importance. 
It was built of stone and pierced with loopholes, to 
serve as a blockhouse in case of attack. The 
great mill at Montreal was one of the chief de- 
fences of the place. It was at once the duty and 
the right of the seignior to supply his tenants, or 
ratlier vassals, with this essential requisite, and 
they on their part were required to grind their 
grain at his mill, leaving the fourteenth part in 
payment. But for many years there was not a 
seigniory in Canada, where this fraction would pay 
the wages of a miller ; and, except the ecclesiasti- 
cal corporations, there were few seigniors who 
could pay the cost of building. The first settlers 
were usually forced to grind for themselves after 
the tedious fashion of the Indians. 

Talon, in his capacity of counsellor, friend, and 
father to all Canada, arranged the new settlements 
near Quebec in the manner which he judged best, 
and which he meant to serve as an example to the 
rest of the colony. It was his aim to concentrate 
population around this point, so that, should an 
enemy appear, the sound of a cannon-shot from 
the Chateau St. Louis might summon a numerous 
bo(3y of defenders to this the common point of 
rendezvous.^ He bought a tract of land near 
Quebec, laid it out, and settled it. as a model seign- 
iory, hoping^ as he says, to kindle a spirit of emu- 
lation among the new-made seigniors to whom he 

1 Projets de R^glemens, 1667. 



236 THE NEW HOME. |1665-7'i 

had granted lands from the king. He also laid 
out at the royal cost three villages m the im- 
mediate neighborhood, planning them with great 
care, and peopling them partly with fanuhes newly 
arrived, partly with soldiers, and partly with old 
settlers, in order that the new-comers might take 
lessons from the experience of these veterans. 
I^hat each village might be complete in itself, 
he furnished it as well as he could with the need- 
ful carpenter, mason, blacksmith, and shoemaker. 
These inland villages, called respectively Bourg 
Royal, Bourg la Reine, and Bourg Talon, did not 
prove very thrifty.^ Wherever the settlers were 
allowed to choose for themselves, they ranged their 
dwellings along the watercourses. With the ex- 
ception of Talon's villages, one could have seen 
nearly every house in Canada, by paddling a canoe 
up the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu. The set- 
tlements formed long thin lines on the edges of the 
rivers; a convenient arrangement, but one very 
unfavorable to defence, to ecclesiastical control, and 
to strong government. The king soon discovered 
this ; and repeated orders were sent to concentrate 
the inhabitants and form Canada into villages, 
instead of cotes. To do so would have involved a 
general revocation of grants and abandonment of 
houses and clearings, a measure too arbitrary and 
too wasteful, even for Louis XIV., and one ex- 
tremely difficult to enforce. Canada persisted in 
attenuating herself, and the royal will was foiled. 

* In 1672, the king, as a mark of honor, attached these villag«}8 to 
Talon's seigniory. Documents on Seigniorial Tenure. 



1665-72; ASPECT OF CANADA. 237 

As jou ascended the St. Lawrence, the first 
harboring place of civilization was Tadoussac, at 
the mouth of the Saguenay, where the company 
had its trading station, where its agents ruled 
supreme, and where, in early summer, all was 
ahve with canoes and wigwams, and troops of Mon- 
tagnais savages, bringing their furs to market. 
Leave Tadoussac behind, and, embarked in a sail- 
boat or a canoe, follow the northern coast. Far 
on the left, twenty miles away, the southern shore 
lies pale and dim, and mountain ranges wave their 
faint outline along the sky. You pass the beetling 
rocks of Mai Bay, a solitude but for the bark hut 
of some wandering Indian beneath the chff; the 
Eboulements with their wild romantic gorge, and 
foaming waterfalls ; and the Bay of St. Paul with 
its broad < valley and its woody mountains, rich 
with hidden stores of iron. Vast piles of savage 
verdure border the mighty stream, till at length 
the mountain of Cape Tourmente upheaves its huge 
bulk from the bosom of the water, shadowed by 
lowering clouds, and dark with forests. Just 
beyond, begin the settlements of Laval's vast 
seigniory of Beaupre, which had not been for- 
gotten in the distribution of emigrants, and which, 
in 1667, contained more inhabitants than Quebec 
itself.^ The ribbon of rich meadow land that bor- 
ders that beautiful shore, was yellow with wheat 

1 The census of 1667 gives to Quebec only 448 souls ; Cote de BeauprtS, 
666; Beauport, 123; Island of Orleans, 629; other settlements included 
under the government of Quebec, 1,011 ; Cote de Lauzon (south shore), 
113; Trois Rivieres and its dependencies, 666; Montreal, 766. Both 
Beauprd and Isle d'Orleans belonged at this time to the bishop. 



238 THE NEW HOME. 11665-72 

in harvest time, and on the woody slopes behind, 
the frequent clearings and the solid little dwellings 
of logs continued for a long distance to relieve the 
sameness of the forest. After passing the cataract 
oi Montmorenci, there was another settlement, 
much smaller, at Beauport, the seigniory of the 
ex-physician Giffard, one of the earliest proprietors 
in Canada. The neighboring shores of the island 
of Orleans were also edged with houses and clear- 
ings. The promontory of Quebec now towered 
full in sight, crowned with church, fort, chateau, 
convents, and seminary. There was little else on 
the rock. Priests, nuns, government officials, and 
soldiers, were the denizens of the Upper Town ; 
while commerce and the trades were cabined along 
the strand beneath.^ From the gallery of the 
chateau, you might toss a pebble far down on their 
shingled roofs. In the midst of them was the 
magazine of the company, with its two round 
toAvers and two projecting wings. It was here 
that all the beaver-skins of the colony were col- 
lected, assorted, and shipped for France. The so- 
called chateau St. Louis was an indifferent wooden 
structure planted on a site truly superb ; above 
the Lower Town, above the river, above the ships, 
gazing abroad on a majestic panorama of waters, 
forests, and mountains.^ Behind it was the area 
of the fort, of which it formed one side. The 

* According to Juchereau, there were seventy houses at Quebec about 
the time of Tracy's arrival. 

2 In 1660, an exact inventory was taken of the contents of the fort and 
chateau ; a beggarly account of rubbish. The chateau was then a long 
low building roofed with shingles. 



1665-72.1 QUEBEC. 239 

governor lived in tHe chateau, and soldiers were 
on guard night and day in the fort. At some 
little distance was the convent of the Ursuhnes, 
ugly but substantial/ where Mother Mary of the 
Incarnation ruled her pupils and her nuns ; md 
a little further on, towards the right, was the 
Hotel Dieu. Between them were the massive 
buildings of the Jesuits, then as now facing the 
principal square. At one side was their church, 
newly finished ; and opposite, across the square, 
stood and still stands the great church of Notre 
Dame. Behind the church was Laval's seminary, 
with the extensive enclosures belonging to it. The 
senechaussee or court-house, the tavern of one 
Jacques Boisdon on the square near the church, 
and a few houses along the line of what is now St. 
Louis Street, comprised nearly all the civil part 
of the Upper Town. The ecclesiastical buildings 
were of stone, and the church of Notre Dame and 
the Jesuit College were marvels of size and sohd- 
ity in view of the poverty and weakness of the 
colony.^ 

Proceeding upward along the north shore of the 
St. Lawrence, one found a cluster of houses at Cap 
Rouge, and, further on, the frequent rude begin- 
nings, of a seigniory. The settlements thickened on 

1 There is an engraving of it in Abbe Casgrain's interesting Vie da 
Marie de I'Incarnation. It was burned in 1686. 

'^ The first stone of Notre Dame de Quebec was laid in September, 
1647, and the fiirst mass was said in it on the 24th of December, 1650. 
The side walls still remain as part of the present structure. The Jesuit 
college was also begun in 1647. The walls and roof were finished in 
1649. The church connected with it, since destroyed, was begun ia 
1666. Journal des J^suites. 



240 THE NEW HOME. [1665-72 

approacliing Three Rivers, a fur-trading hamlet 
enclosed with a square pahsade. Above this place, 
a line of incipient seigniories bordered the river, 
most of them granted to officers : Laubia, a captain ; 
Labadie, a sergeant; Moras, an ensign; Berthier, 
a captain; Raudin, an ensign; La Valterie, a lieu- 
tenant.^ Under their auspices, settlers, ixdlitary 
dnd civilian, were ranging themselves along the 
shore, and ugly gaps in the forest thickly set with 
stumps bore witness to their toils. These settle- 
ments rapidly extended, till in a few years a chain 
of houses and clearings reached with little inter- 
ruption from Quebec to Montreal. Such was the 
fruit of Tracy's chastisement of the Mohawks, and 
the influx of immigrants that followed. 

As you approached Montreal, the fortified mill 
built by the Sulpitians at Point aux Trembles 
towered above the woods ; and soon after the newly 
built chapel of the Infant Jesus. More settlements 
followed, till at length the great fortified mill of 
Montreal rose in sight ; then the long row of com- 
pact wooden houses, the Hotel Dieu, and the rough 
masonry of the seminary of St. Sulpice. Beyond 
the town, the clearings continued at intervals till 
you reached Lake St. Louis, where young Cavelier 
de la Salle had laid out his seigniory of La Chine, 
and abandoned it to begin his hard career of west- 
ern exploration. Above the island of Montreal, 



1 Documents on the Seigniorial Tenure ; Abstracts of Titles. Most of 
these grants, like those on the Richelieu, were made by Talon in 1672 ; 
but the land had, in many cases, been occupied and cleared in anticipation 
of the title. 



1665-72.1 THE PIONEERS. 241 

the wilderness was broken only by a solitary trading 
station on the neighboring Isle Perot. 

Now cross Lake St. Louis, shoot the rapids of 
La Chine, and follow the southern shore downward. 
Here the seigniories of Longueuil, Boucherville, 
Varennes, Vercheres, and Contrecoeur were already 
begun. From the fort of Sorel one could visit the 
mihtary seigniories along the Richelieu or descend 
towards Quebec, passing on the way those of Lus- 
saudiere, Becancour, Lotbiniere, and others still in 
a shapeless infancy. Even far below Quebec, at 
St. Anne de la Pocatiere, River Quelle, and other 
points, cabins and clearings greeted the eye of the 
passing canoeman. 

For a year or two, the settler's initiation was a 
rough one ; but when he had a few acres under 
tillage he could support himself and his family on 
the produce, aided by hunting, if he knew how to 
Qse a gun, and by the bountiful profusion of eels 
which the St. Lawrence never failed to yield in 
their season, and which, smoked or salted, supplied 
his larder for months. In winter he hewed timber, 
sawed planks, or spHt shingles for the market of 
Quebec, obtaining in return such necessaries as he 
required. With thrift and hard work he was sure 
of comfort at last ; but the former habits of the 
military settlers and of many of the others were 
not favorable to a routine of dogged industry. The 
sameness and sohtude of their new life often became 
insufferable ; nor, married as they had been, was 
the domestic hearth likely to supply much consola- 
tion. Yet, thrifty or not, they multiphed ajjace. 

16 



242 THE NEW HOME. [li565-72 

" A poor man," says Mother Mary, " will have eight 
children and more, who run about in winter with 
bare heads and bare feet, and a httle jacket on 
their backs, live on nothing but bread and eels, 
and on that grow fat and stout." With such treat- 
ment the weaker sort died; but the strong sur- 
vived, and out of this rugged nursing sprang the 
hardy Canadian race of bush-rangers and bush- 
fifijhters. 



CHAPTER XV. 

1663-1763. 
CANADIAN FEUDALISM. 

fBANSl'LANTATION OF FEUDALISM. — PRECAUTIONS. — FaIIH AND HOK 

AGE. — The Seignior. — The Censitaike. — Eotal Intehvbh 
TioN. — The Gentilhomme. — Canadian Noblesse. 

Canadian society was beginning to form itseK, 
and at its base was the feudal tenure. European 
feudalism was the indigenous and natural growth 
of political and social conditions which preceded it. 
Canadian feudalism was an offshoot of the f eudaHsm 
of France, modified by the lapse of centuries, and 
further modified by the royal will. 

In France, as in the rest of Europe, the system 
had lost its vitality. The warrior-nobles who placed 
Hugh Capet on the throne, and began the feuda* 
monarchy, formed an aristocratic repubhc, and the 
king was one of their number, whom they chose to 
be their chief. But, through the struggles and 
vicissitudes of many succeeding reigns, royalty had 
waxed and oligarchy had waned. The fact had 
changed and the theory had changed with it. The 
king, once powerless among a host of turbulent 
nobles, was now a king indeed. Once a chief, 



^44 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. [1063-1763. 

because his equals had made him so, he was now 
the anointed of the Lord. This triumph of royalty 
had culminated in Louis XIY. The stormy ener- 
gies and bold individualism of the old feudal noblea 
had ceased to exist. They who had held his pre- 
decessors in awe had become his obsequious ser- 
vants. He no longer feared his nobles ; he prized 
them as gorgeous decorations of his court, and 
satellites of his royal person. 

It was Richelieu who first planted feudalism m 
Canada.^ The king would preserve it there, because 
with its teeth drawn he was fond of it, and because, 
as the feudal tenure prevailed in Old France, it 
was natural that it should prevail also in the New. 
But he continued as Richeheu had begun, and 
moulded it to the form that pleased him. Nothing 
was left which could threaten his absolute and 
undivided authority over the colony. In France, 
a multitude of privileges and prescriptions still 
clung, despite its fall, about the ancient ruling 
class. Few of these were allowed to cross the 
Atlantic, while the old, lingering abuses, which 
had made the system odious, were at the same 
time lopped away. Thus retrenched, Canadian 
feudalism was made to serve a double end; to 
produce a faint and harmless reflection of French 
aristocracy, and simply and practically to supply 
agencies for distributing land among the settlers. 

The nature of the precautions which it was held 
to require appear in the plan of administration 
which Talon and Tracy laid before the minister. 

' By the charter of the Company of the Hundred Associates, 1627. 



£663-1763.] PRECAUTIONS. 245 

Tliej urge that, in view of the distance from 
France, special care ought to be taken to prevent 
changes and revolutions, aristocratic or otherwise, 
in the colony, whereby in time sovereign jurisdic- 
tions might grow up, as formerly occurred in 
various parts of France.^ And, in respect to grants 
already made, an inquiry was ordered, to ascertain 
" if seigniors in distributing lands to their vassals 
have exacted any conditions injurious to the rights 
of the Crown and the subjection due solely to the 
king." In the same view the seignior was denied 
any voice whatever in the direction of government ; 
and it is scarcely necessary to say that the essen- 
tial feature of feudalism in the day of its vitality, 
the requirement of military service by the lord 
from the vassal, was utterly unknown in Canada. 
The royal governor called out the militia whenever 
he saw fit, and set over it what officers he pleased. 
The seignior was usually the immediate vassal 
of the Crown, from which he had received his 
land gratuitously. In a few cases, he made grants 
to other seigniors inferior in the feudal scale, and 
they, his vassals, granted in turn to their vassals, 
the habitants or cultivators of the soil.^ Sometimes 

1 Projet de Re'glement fait par MM. de Tracy et Talon pour la justice et 
la distribution des terres du Canada, Jan. 24, 1667. 

- Most of the seigniories of Canada were simple fiefs ; but there were 
some exceptions. In 1671, the king, as a mark of honor to Talon, erected 
his seigniory Des Islets into a barony ; and it was soon afterwards made 
ar earldom, comt^ In 1676, the seigniory of St. Laurent, on the island 
of Orleans, once the property of Laval, and then belonging to Fran9oia 
Berthelot, councillor of the king, was erected into an earldom. In 1681, 
the seigniory of Portneuf, belonging to Ren^ Robineau, chevalier, waa 
made a barony. In 1700, three seigniories on the south side of the St. 
Lawrence were united into the barony of Longueuil. See Papers on 
the Feudal Tenure in Canada, Abstract of Titles. 



246 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. [1663-1763, 

the habitant held directly of the Crown, in which 
case there was no step between the highest and 
lowest degrees of the feudal scale. The seignior 
held by the tenure of faith and homage, the habi- 
tant by the inferior tenure en censive. Faith and 
homage were rendered to the Crown or other 
feudal superior whenever the seigniory changed 
hands, or, in the case of seigniories held by cor- 
porations, after long stated intervals. The follow- 
ing is an example, drawn from the early days of the 
colony, of the performance of this ceremony by 
the owner of a fief to the seignior who had granted 
it to him. It is that of Jean Guion, vassal of Gif- 
fard, seignior of Beauport. The act recounts how, 
in presence of a notary, Guion presented himself 
at the principal door of the manor-house of Beau- 
port ; how, having knocked, one Boull6, farmer of 
Giffard, opened the door, and in reply to Guion's 
question if the seignior was at home, replied that 
he was not, but that he, Boulle, was empowered 
to receive acknowledgments of faith and homage 
from the vassals in his name. " After the which 
reply," proceeds the act, " the said Guion, being 
at the principal door, placed himself on his knees 
on the ground, with head bare, and without sword 
or spurs, and said three times these words : " Mon- 
sieur de Beauport, Monsieur de Beauport, Monsieur 
de Beauport, I bring you the faith and homage 
which I am bound to bring you on account of my 
fief Du Buisson, which I hold as a man of faith of 
your seigniory of Beauport, declaring that I offer 
to pay my seigniorial and feudal dues in their 



1663-1763.] FAITH AND HOMAGE. 247 

season, and demanding of you to accept me in 
faith and homage as aforesaid."^ 

The following instance is the more common one 
of a seignior holding directly of the Crown. It is 
widely separated from the first in point of time, 
having occurred a year after the army of WoKe 
entered Quebec. Philippe Noel had lately died, 
and Jean Noel, his son, inherited his seigniory of 
Tilly and Bonsecours. To make the title good, 
faith and homage must be renewed. Jean Noel 
was under the bitter necessity of rendering this 
duty to General Murray, governor for the king of 
Great Britain. The form is the same as in the 
case of Guion, more than a century before. Noel 
repairs to the Government House at Quebec, and 
knocks at the door. A servant opens it. Noel 
asks if the governor is there. The servant replies 
that he is. Murray, informed of the visitor's object, 
comes to the door, and Noel then and there, " with- 
out sword or spurs, with bare head, and one knee on 
the ground," repeats the acknowledgment of faith 
and homage for his seigniory. He was compelled, 
however, to add a detested innovation, the oath of 
fidelity to his Britannic Majesty, coupled with a 
pledge to keep his vassals in obedience to the new 
sovereign.^ 

The seignior was a proprietor holding that rela- 
tion to the feudal superior which, in its pristine 

1 Ferland, Notes sur les Registres de Notre Dame de Quebec, 65. This 
»ra8 2t, fief en roture, as distinguished from a fief noble, to which judicial 
powers and other priyileges were attached. 

2 See the act in Observations de Sir L. H, Lafontaine, Bart., sur la Ttnur* 
Seignettriale, 217, note. 



248 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. 11663-1765 

cliara(3ter, has been truly described as servile in 
form, proud and bold in spirit. But in Canada 
this bold spirit was very far from being strength- 
ened by the changes which the policy of the Crown 
had introduced into the system. The reservation 
of mines and minerals, oaks for the royal navy, 
roadways, and a site, if needed, for royal forts 
and magazines, had in it nothing extraordinary. 
The great difference between the position of the 
Canadian seignior and that of the vassal proprietor 
of the Middle Ages lay in the extent and nature 
of the control which the Crown and its officers 
held over him. A decree of the king, an edict of 
the council, or an ordinance of the intendant, 
might at any moment change old conditions, impose 
new ones, interfere between the lord of the manor 
and his grantees, and modify or annul his bargains, 
past or present. He was never sure whether or not 
the government would let him alone ; and against 
its most arbitrary intervention he had no remedy. 

One condition was imposed on him which may 
be said to form the distinctive feature of Canadian 
feudalism ; that of clearing his land within a limited 
time on pain of forfeiting it. The object was the 
excellent one of preventing the lands of the colony 
from lying waste. As the seignior was often the 
penniless owner of a domain three or four leagues 
wide and proportionably deep, he could not clear 
it all himself, and was therefore under the neces- 
sity of placing the greater part in the hands of 
those who could. But he was forbidden to sell 
any part of it which he had not cleared. He must 



1668-1763.J THE CENSITAIRB. 249 

grant it without price, on condition of a ismall per- 
petual rent ; and this brings us to the cultivator of 
the soil, the censitaire, the broad base of the feudal 
p^-ramid.^ 

The tenure e7i censive by which the censitaire 
held of the seignior consisted in the obligation to 
make annual payments in money, produce, or both. 
In Canada these payments, known as cens et rente, 
were strangely diverse in amount and kind ; but, 
in all the early period of the colony, they were 
almost ludicrously small. A common charge at 
Montreal was half a sou and half a pint of wheat 
for each arpent. The rate usually fluctuated in 
the early times between half a sou and two sous, 
so that a farm of a hundred and sixty arpents 
would pay from four to sixteen francs, of which a 
part would be in money and the rest in live capons, 
wheat, eggs, or all three together, in pursuance of 
contracts as amusing in their precision as they are 
bewildering in their variety. Live capons, esti- 



1 The greater part of the grants made by the old Company of New 
France were resumed by the Crown for neglect to occupy and improve 
the land, which was granted out anew under the administration of Talon. 
The most remarkable of these forfeited grants is that of the vast domain 
Df La Citiere, large enough for a kingdom. Lauson, afterwards governor, 
had obtained it from the company, but had failed to improve it. Two or 
three sub-grants which he had made from it were held valid ; the rest 
was reunited to the royal domain. On repeated occasions at later dates, 
negligent seigniors were threatened with the loss of half or the whole of 
their land, and various cases are recorded in which the threat took effect. 
In 1741, an ordinance of the governor and intendant reunited to the royal 
domain seventeen seigniories at one stroke ; but the former owners were 
told that if within a year they cleared and settled a reasonable part of tlia 
forfeited estates, the titles should be restored to them. Edits et Ordon- 
nances, II. 555. In the case of the hihitant or censitaire forfeitures fol 
neglect to improve the land and live on it are very numerous. 



250 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. [1663-1763 

mated at twenty sous each, thougli sometimes not 
worth ten, form a conspicuous feature in these 
agreements, so that on pay-day the seignior's barn- 
yard presented an animated scene. Later in the 
history of the colony grants were at somewhat 
higher rates. Payment was commonly made on 
St. Martin's day, when there was a general muster 
of tenants at the seigniorial mansion, with a pro- 
digious consumption of tobacco and a corresponding 
retail of neighborhood gossip, joined to the out- 
cries of the captive fowls bundled together for 
delivery, with legs tied, but throats at full liberty. 

A more considerable but a very uncertain source 
of income to the seignior were the lods et ventes, 
or mutation fines. The land of the censitaire 
passed freely to his heirs; but if he sold it, a 
twelfth part of the purchase-money must be paid 
to the seignior. The seignior, on his part, was 
equally liable to pay a mutation fine to his feudal 
superior if he sold his seigniory ; and for him the 
amount was larger, being a quint, or a fifth of the 
price received, of which, however, the greater part 
was deducted for immediate payment. This heavy 
charge, constituting, as it did, a tax on all improve- 
ments, was a principal cause of the abolition of the 
feudal tenure in 1854. 

The obligation of clearing* his land and Hving on 
it was laid on seignior and censitaire alike ; but 
the latter was under a variety of other obligations 
to the former, partly imposed by custom and partly 
established by agreement when the grant was 
made. To grind his grain at the seignior's mill, 



1663-1763.] ROYAL INTERVENTION. 251 

bake his bread in the seignior's oven, work lor him 
one or more days in the year, and give him one 
fish in every eleven, for the privilege of fishing in 
the river before his farm ; these were the most 
annoying of the conditions to which the censitaire 
was liable. Few of them were enforced Avith much 
regularity. That of baking in the seignior's oven 
was rarely carried into effect, though occasionally 
used for purposes of extortion. It is here that the 
royal government appears in its true character, so 
far as concerns its relations with Canada, that of a 
well-meaning despotism. It continually intervened 
between censitaire and seignior, on the principle 
that " as his Majesty gives the land for nothing, he 
can make what conditions he pleases, and change 
them when he pleases."^ These interventions 
were usually favorable to the censitaire. On one 
occasion an intendant reported to the minister, 
that in his opinion all rents ought to be reduced 
to one sou and one live capon for every arpent 
of front, equal in most cases to forty superficial 
arpents.^ Every thing, he remarks, ought to be 
brought down to the level of the first grants 
"made in days of innocence," a happy period 
which he does not attempt to define. The minister 
replies that the diversity of the rent is, in fact, 
vexatious, and that, for his part, he is disposed to 
abolish it altogether.' Neither he nor the intend- 
ant gives the slightest hint of any compensation 

1 This doctrine is laid down in a letter of the Marquis de Beauliarnois, 
governor, to the minister, 1784. 

2 Lettre de Baudot, pere, au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1707. 

' Lettre de Ponchartrain a Raudot, pere, 1 3 Juin, 1708. 



252 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. [1663-1763 

to the seignior. Though these radical measures 
were not executed, many changes were decreed 
from time to time in the relations between seignior 
and censitaire, sometimes as a simple act of sover- 
eign power, and sometimes on the ground that the 
grants had been made with conditions not recog- 
nized by the Coutume de Paris. This was the 
code of law assigned to Canada ; but most of the 
contracts between seignior and censitaire had been 
agreed upon in good faith by men who knew as 
much of the Coutume de Paris as of the Capitula- 
ries of Charlemagne, and their conditions had 
remained in force unchallenged for generations. 
These interventions of government sometimes con- 
tradicted each other, and often proved a dead 
letter. They are more or less active through the 
whole period of the French rule. 

The seignior had judicial powers, which, how- 
ever, were carefully curbed and controlled. His 
jurisdiction, when exercised at all, extended in 
most cases only to trivial causes. He very rarely 
had a prison, and seems never to have abused it. 
The dignity of a seigniorial gallows with high 
justice or jurisdiction over heinous offences was 
granted only in three or four instances.^ 

Four arpents in front by forty in depth were 
the ordinary dimensions of a grant en censive. 
These ribbons of land, nearly a mile and a half 
long, with one end on the river and the other on 

' Baronies and comt^s were empowered to set up gallows and pillories, 
to which the arms of the owner were affixed. See, for example, the edict 
creating the Barony des Islets. 



1663-1763.1 THE HABITANT. 253 

the uplands behind, usually combined the advan- 
tages of meadows for cultivation, and forests for 
timber and firewood. So long as the censitaire 
brought in on St. Martin's day his yearly capons 
and his yearly handful of copper, his title against 
the seignior was perfect. There are farms in 
Canada wliich have passed from father to son for 
two hundred years. The condition of the culti- 
vator was incomparably better than that of the 
French peasant, crushed by taxes, and oppressed 
by feudal burdens far heavier than those of Canada. 
In fact, the Canadian settler scorned the name of 
peasant, and then, as now, was always called the 
habitant. The government held him in wardship, 
watched over him, interfered with him, but did 
not oppress him or allow others to oppress him. 
Canada was not governed to the profit of a class, 
and if the king wished to create a Canadian noblesse 
he took care that it should not bear hard on the 
country.^ 

Under a genuine feudalism, the ownership of 
land conferred nobility ; but all this was changed. 
The king and not the soil was now the parent of 
honor. France swarmed with landless nobles, while 
roturier land-holders grew daily more numerous. 
In Canada half the seigniories were in roturier or 
plebeian hands, and in course of time some of them 

1 On the seigniorial tenure, I have examined the whole of the mass 
of papers printed at the time when the question of its abolition was under 
discussion. A great deal of legal research and learning was then devoted 
to tlie subject. The argument of Mr. Dunkin in behalf of the seigniors, 
and the observations of Judge Laf ontaine, are especially instructive, as la 
also the collected correspondence of the governors and intendants with 
the central government on matters relating to the seigniorial system 



ii54 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. 11663-176& 

came into possession of persons on very humble 
degrees of the social scale. A seigniory could be 
bought and sold, and a trader or a thrifty habitani 
might, and often did become the buyer.^ If the 
Canadian noble was always a seignior, it is far from 
being true that the Canadian seignior was always 
a noble. 

In France, it will be remembered, nobility did 
not in itself imply a title. Besides its titled leaders, 
it had its rank and file, numerous enough to form 
a considerable army. Under the later Bourbons, 
the penniless young nobles were, in fact, enrolled 
into regiments, turbulent, difficult to control, obey- 
ing officers of high rank, but scorning all others, 
and conspicuous by a fiery and impetuous valor 
which on more than one occasion turned the tide 
of victory. The gentilhomme, or untitled noble, 
had a distinctive character of his own, gallant, 
punctilious, vain ; skilled in social and sometimes 
in literary and artistic accomplishments, but usually 
ignorant of most things except the handhng of hia 
rapier. Yet there were striking exceptions ; and 
to say of him, as has been said, that " he knew 
nothing but how to get himseK killed," is hardly 
just to a body which has produced some of the 
best writers and tliinkers of France. 

Sometimes the origin of his nobility was lost in 

1 In 1712, the engineer Catalogne made a very long and elaborate re- 
port on the condition of Canada, with a full account of all the seigniorial 
estates. Of ninety-one seigniories, fiefs, and baronies, described by him, 
ten belonged to merchants, twelve to husbandmen, and two to masters of 
small river craft. The rest belonged to religious corporations, members 
of the council, judges, officials of the Crown, widows, and discharged 
officers or their sons. 



1063-1763.] CANADIAN NOBLESSE. 255 

the mists of time ; sometimes he owed it to a patent 
from the king. In either case, the hne of deKarca- 
tion between him and the classes below him was 
perfectly distinct; and in this lies an essential 
difference between the French nohlesse and the 
English gentry, a class not separated from others 
by a definite barrier. The French nohlesse, unlike 
the English gentry, constituted a caste. 

The gentilhomme had no vocation for emigrating. 
He liked the army and he liked the court. If he 
could not be of it, it was something to live in its 
shadow. The life of a backwoods settler had no 
charm for him. He was not used to labor ; and 
he could not trade, at least in retail, without be- 
coming liable to forfeit his nobility. When Talon 
came to Canada, there were but four noble families 
in the colony.^ Young nobles in abundance came 
out with Tracy; but they went home with him. 
Where, then, should be found the material of a 
Canadian nohlesse f First, in the regiment of 
Carignan, of which most of the officers were gen- 
tilshommes ; secondly, in the issue of patents of 
nobility to a few of the more prominent colonists. 
Tracy asked for four such patents ; Talon asked 
for five more ; ^ and such requests were repeated 
at intervals by succeeding governors and intend- 
ants, in behalf of those who had gained their favor 
by merit or otherwise. Money smoothed the path 

1 Talon, M^moire sur I'Etat pre'sent du Canada, 1667. The families of 
Repentigny, Tilly, Poterie, and Aillebout appear to be meant. 

2 Tracy's request was in behalf of Bourdon, Boucher, Auteuil, and 
Juchereau. Talon's was in behalf of Godefroy, Le Moyne, Denis, Amio^ 
and Couillard 



256 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. 11663-1763. 

to advancement, so far had noblesse already fallen 
from its old estate. Thus Jacques Le Ber, the 
merchant, who had long kept a shop at Montreal, 
got himself made a gentleman for six thousand 
livres.^ 

All Canada soon became infatuated with noblesse; 
and country and town, merchant and seignior, vied 
with each other for the quality of gentilhomme. 
If they could not get it, they often pretended to 
have it, and aped its ways with the zeal of Mon- 
sieur Jourdain himself. " Everybody here," writes 
the intendant Meules, " calls himself Esquire, an'd 
ends with thinking himself a gentleman." Succes- 
sive intendants repeat this complaint. The case 
was worst with roturiers who had acquired seign- 
iories. Thus Noel Langlois was a good carpenter 
till he became owner of a seigniory, on which he 
grew lazy and affected to play the gentleman. 
The real gentilshommes, as well as the spurious, 
had their full share of official stricture. The gov- 
ernor Denonville speaks of them thus : " Several 
of them have come out this year with their wives, 
who are very much cast down ; but they play the 
fine lady, nevertheless. I had much rather see 
good peasants ; it would be a pleasure to me to 
give aid to such, knowing, as I should, that within 
two years their families would have the means of 
living at ease ; for it is certain that a peasant who 
can and will work is well off in this country, while 
our nobles with nothing to do can never be any 
thing but beggars. Still they ought not to be 

1 Faillon, Vie de Mademoiselle Le Ber, 325. 



1G63-1763.1 CANADIAN NOBLESSE. 257 

driven off or abandoned. The question is how to 
maintain them." ^ 

The intendant Duchesneau writes to the same 
effect : " Many of our gentilshommes, officers, and 
other owners of seigniories, lead what in France is 
called the life of a country gentleman, and spend 
most of their time in hunting and fishing. As 
their requirements in food and clothing are greater 
than those of the simple habitants, and as they do 
not devote themselves to improving their land, 
they mix themselves up in trade, run in debt on 
all hands, incite their young habitants to range the 
woods, and send their own children there to trade 
for furs in the Indian villages and in the depths of 
the forest, in spite of the prohibition of his Majesty. 
Yet, with all this, they are in miserable poverty." ^ 

Their condition, indeed, was often deplorable. 
" It is pitiful," says the intendant Champigny, " to 
see their children, of which they have great num- 
bers, passing all summer with nothing on them 
but a shirt, and their wives and daughters working 
in the fields." ^ In another letter -he asks aid from 
the king for Eepentigny with his thirteen children, 
and for Tilly with his fifteen. "We must give 
them some corn at once," he says, " or they will 
starve."* These were two of the original four 
noble families of Canada. The family of Aillebout, 
another of the four, is described as equally desti- 
tute. " Pride and sloth," says the same intendant, 

^ Lettre de Denonvtlle au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1686. 
2 Lettre de Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679. 
' Lettre de Champigny au Ministre, 26 Aout, 1687. 
* Ibid., 6 Nov., 1687. 

17 



258 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. '1663-1763. 

" are the great faults of the people of Canada, and 
especially of the nobles and those who pretend to 
be such. I pray you grant no more letters of 
nobility, unless you want to multiply beggars."-' 
The governor Denonville is still more emphatic: 
" Above all things, monseigneur, permit me to say 
that the nobles of this new country are every thing 
that is most beggarly, and that to increase their 
number is to increase the number of do-nothings. 
A new country requires hard workers, who will 
handle the axe and mattock. The sons of oui 
councillors are no more industrious than the nobles ; 
and their only resource is to take to the woods, 
trade a little with the Indians, and, for the most 
part, fall into the disorders of which I have had 
the honor to inform you. I shall use all possible 
means to induce them to engage in regular com- 
merce ; but as our nobles and councillors are aU 
very poor and weighed down with debt, they could 
not get credit for a single crown piece." ^ " Two 
days ago," he writes in another letter, " Monsieur 
de Saint-Ours, a gentleman of Dauphiny, came to 
me to ask leave to go back to France in search of 
bread. He says that he wiU put his ten children 
into the charge of any who will give them a living, 
and that he himself wiU go into the army again. 
His wife and he are in despair ; and yet they do 
what they can. I have seen two of his girls reaping 
grain and holding the plough. Other families are 

* M^moire instructif sur le Canada, joint a la lettre de M. de Champigny du 
10 3fay, 1691. 

2 Lettre de Denonville au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1685. 



1663-1763.] CANADIAN NOBLESSE. 259 

in the same condition. They come to me with tears 
in their eyes. All our married officers are beggars ; 
and I entreat you to send them aid. There is need 
that the king should provide support for their chil- 
dren, or else they will be tempted to go over to the 
English." ' Again he writes that the sons of the 
councillor D'Amours have been arrested as coureurs 
de hois, or outlaws in the bush ; and that if the 
minister does not do something to help them, there 
is danger that all the sons of the nohlesse, real or 
pretended, will turn bandits, since they have no 
other means of living. 

The king, dispenser of charity for all Canada, 
came promptly to the rescue. He granted an alms 
of a hundred crowns to each family, coupled with 
a warning to the recipients of his bounty that 
" their misery proceeds from their ambition to live 
as persons of quality and without labor." ^ At the 
same time, the minister announced that no more 
letters of nobility would be granted in Canada ; 
adding, " to relieve the country of some of the 
children of those who are really noble, I send you 
{the governor) six commissions of Gardes de la 
Marine, and recommend you to take care not to 
give them to any who are not actually gentils- 
hommes" The Garde de la Marine answered to 
the midshipman of the English or American service. 
As the six commissions could bring little relief to 
the crowd of needy youths, it was further ordained 

1 Lettre de Denonville au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1686. (Condensed in the 
translation.) 

2 Abstract of Denonville's Letters, and of the Minister's Answers, ia 
N. Y. Colonial D>cs., IX. 317, 318. 



260 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. fl663-17&d, 

that sons of nobles or persons living as such should 
be enrolled into companies at eight sous a day for 
those who should best conduct themselves, and six 
sous a day for the others. Nobles in Canada were 
also permitted to trade, even at retail, without 
derogating from their rank.^ 

They had already assumed this right, without 
waiting for the royal license ; but thus far it had 
profited them little. The gentilhomme was not a 
good shopkeeper, nor, as a rule, was the oLop- 
keeper's vocation very lucrative in Canada. The 
domestic trade of the colony was small; and all 
trade was exposed to such vicissitudes from the 
intervention of intendants, ministers, and councils, 
that at one time it was almost banished. At best, 
it was carried on under conditions auspicious to a 
favored few and withering to the rest. Even when 
most willing to work, the position of the gentil- 
homme was a painful one. Unless he could gain 
a post under the Crown, which was rarely the case, 
he was as complete a pohtical cipher as the 
meanest habitant. His rents were practically 
nothing, and he had no capital to improve his 
seigniorial estate. By a peasant's work he could 
gain a peasant's living, and this was all. The 
prospect was not inspiring. His long initiation of 
misery was the natural result of his position and 
surroundings ; and it is no matter of wonder that 
he threw himself into the only field of action 
which in time of peace was open to him. It was 
trade, but trade seasoned by adventure and en- 

1 Lettre de Meules au Ministre, 1685. 



1663-1763. J CANADIAN NOBLESSE. 261 

nobled by danger ; defiant of edict and ordinance, 
outlawed, conducted in arms among forests and 
savages, — in short, it was the Western fur trade. 
The tyro was hkely to fail in it at first, but time 
and experience formed him to the work. On the 
Great Lakes, in the wastes of the Northwest, on 
the Mississippi and the plains beyond, we find the 
roving gentilhomme, chief of a gang of bush- 
rangers, often his own habitants ; sometimes pro- 
scribed by the government, sometimes leagued in 
contraband traffic with its highest officials, a hardy 
vidette of civilization, tracing unknown streams, 
piercing unknown forests, trading, fighting, nego- 
tiating, and building forts. Again we find him on 
the shores of Acadia or Maine, surrounded by 
Indian retainers, a menace and a terror to the 
neighboring English colonist. Saint-Castin, Du 
Lhut, La Durantaye, La Salle, La Motte-Cadillac, 
Iberville, Bienville, La Verendrye, are names that 
stand conspicuous on the page of haK-savage 
romance that refreshes the hard and practical 
annals of American colonization. But a more sub- 
stantial debt is due to their memory. It was they, 
and such as they, who discovered the Ohio, ex- 
plored the Mississippi to its mouth, discovered the 
Eocky Mountains, and founded Detroit, St. Louis, 
and New Orleans. 

Even in his earliest day, the gentilhomme was 
not always in the evil plight where we have found 
him. There were a few exceptions to the general 
misery, and the chief among them is that of the 
]^e Moyneg of Montreal. Charles Le Moyne, son 



2Q2 CANADIAN FEUDALISM. [1663-1768. 

of an innkeeper of Dieppe and founder of a famil}' 
the most truly eminent in Canada, was a man of 
sterling qualities who had been long enougii in the 
colony to learn how to live there .^ Others learned 
the same lesson at a later day, adapted themselves 
to soil and situation, took root, grew, and became 
more Canadian than French. As population in- 
creased, their seigniories began to yield appreciable 
returns, and their reserved domains became worth 
cultivating. A future dawned upon them; they 
saw in hope their names, their seigniorial estates, 
their manor-houses, their tenantry, passing to their 
children and their children's children. The beg- 
gared noble of the early time became a sturdy 
country gentleman ; poor, but not wretched ; igno- 
rant of books, except possibly a few scraps of 
rusty Latin picked up in a Jesuit school ; hardy as 
the hardiest woodsman, yet never forgetting his 
quality of gentilhomme ; scrupulously wearing its 
badge, the sword, and copying as well as he could 
the fashions of the court, which glowed on his 
vision across the sea in all the effulgence of Ver- 
sailles, and beamed with reflected ray from the 
chateau of Quebec. He was at home among his 
tenants, at home among the Indians, and never 
more at home than when, a gun in his hand and a 
crucifix on his breast, he took the war-path with a 

• Berthelot, proprietor of the comt€oi St. Laurent, and Robineau, of 
the barony of Portneuf, may also be mentioned as exceptionally pros- 
perous. Of the younger Charles Le Moyne, afterwards Baron de Lon- 
gueuil, Frontenac the governor says, "son fort et sa maison nous 
donnent une idee des chateaux de France fortifiez." His fort was of 
Btone and flanked with four towers. It was nearly opposite Montreal, on 
the south shore. 



xtJ63-i763.1 CANADiAJS NOBLESSE. 263 

crew of painted savages and Frenchmen almost as 
wild, and pounced like a lynx from the forest on 
some lonely farm or outlying hamlet of New 
England. How New England hated him, let her 
records tell. The reddest blood streaks on her old 
annals mark the track of the Canadian ge^itil- 
homme. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

1663-1763. 

THE EULERS OF CANADA. 

Nature of the Government. — The Governor. — The Cotjnch.. 
Courts and Judges. — The Intendant. — His Grievances. — 
Strong Government. — Sedition and Blasphemy. — Eotai 
Bounty. — Defects and Abuses. 

The government of Canada was formed in its 
chief features after the government of a French 
province. Throughout France the past and the 
present stood side by side. The kingdom had a 
double administration; or rather, the shadow of 
the old administration and the substance of the 
new. The government of provinces had long 
been held by the high nobles, often kindred to the 
Crown ; and hence, in former times, great perils 
had arisen, amounting during the civil wars to the 
danger of dismemberment. The high nobles were 
still governors of provinces ; but here, as else- 
where, they had ceased to be dangerous. Titles, 
honors, and ceremonial they had in abundance ; 
but they were deprived of real power. Close 
beside them was the royal intendant, an obscure 
figure, lost amid the vainglories of the feudal 
sunset, but in the name of the king holding the 



1663-1763.] GOVERNOR AND INTEND ANT. 265 

reins of government; a check and a spy on liis 
gorgeous colleague. He was the king's agent : of 
modest birth, springing from the legal class ; owing 
his present to the king, and dependent on him for 
his future ; learned in the law and trained to ad- 
ministration. It was by such instruments that the 
powerful centralization of the monarchy enforced 
itself throughout the kingdom, and, penetrating 
beneath the crust of old prescriptions, supplanted 
without seeming to supplant them. The courtier 
noble looked down in the pride of rank on the busy 
man in black at his side ; but this man in black, with 
the troop of officials at his beck, controlled finance, 
the royal courts, public works, and all the admin- 
istrative business of the province. 

The governor-general and the intendant of 
Canada answered to those of a French province. 
The governor, excepting in the earliest period of 
the colony, was a military noble; in most cases 
bearing a title and sometimes of high rank. The 
intendant, as in France, was usually drawn from 
the gens de robe, or legal class.^ The mutual rela- 
tions of the two officers were modified by the 
circumstances about them. The governor was 
superior in rank to the intendant ; he commanded 
the troops, conducted relations with foreign colo- 
nies and Indian tribes, and took precedence on all 
occasions of ceremony. Unlike a provincial gov 



^ The governor was styled in his commission, Gouvemeur et Lieutenant- 
Cr€n/ral en Canada, Acadie, Isle de Terreneuve, et autres pays de la France 
Septentrionale ; and the intendant, Intendant de la Justice, Police, et Finances 
•n Canada, Acadie, Terreneuve, et autres pays de la France Septentrionale 



266 THE RULEES OF CANADA. [1663-1768. 

ernor in France, he had great and substantial 
power, The king and the minister, his sole 
masters, were a thousand leagues distant, and he 
controlled the whole military force. If he abused 
his position, there was no remedy but in appeal to 
the court, which alone could hold him in check. 
There were local governors at Montreal and Three 
Rivers ; but their j)Ower was carefully curbed, and 
they were forbidden to fine or imprison any person 
without authority from Quebec.^ 

The intendant was virtually a spy on the gov- 
ernor-general, of whose proceedings and of every 
thing else that took place he was required to make 
report. Every year he wrote to the minister of 
state, one, two, three, or four letters, often forty or 
fifty pages long, filled with the secrets of the colony, 
political and personal, great and small, set forth with 
a minuteness often interesting, often instructive^ 
and often excessively tedious.^ The governor, too, 
wrote letters of pitiless length; and each of the 
colleagues was jealous of the letters of the other. 
In truth, their relations to each other were so criti- 
cal, and perfect harmony so rare, that they might 
almost be described as natural enemies. The 
court, it is certain, did not desire their perfect 
accord ; nor, on the other hand, did it wish them 
to quarrel : it aimed to keep them on such terms 

1 The Sulpitian seigniors of Montreal claimed the right of appointing 
their own local governor. This was denied by the court, and the ex- 
cellent Sulpitian governor, Maisonneuve, was removed by De Tracy, to 
die in patient obscurity at Paris. Some concessions were afterwards 
made in favor of the Sulpitian claims. 

2 I have carefully r«jad about two thoasamd pages of these lettens, 



1063-1763. 1 THE COUNCIL. 267 

that, without deranging the machinery of admin 
istration, each should be a check on the other.^ 

The governor, the intendant, and the supreme 
30uncil or court, were absolute masters of Canada 
under the pleasure of the king. Legislative, judi- 
cial, and executive power, all centred in them. 
We have seen already the very unpromising be- 
ginnings of the supreme council. It had consisted 
at first of the governor, the bishop, and five coun 
cillors chosen by them. The intendant was soon 
added to form the ruling triumvirate ; but the 
appointment of the councillors, the occasion of so 
many quarrels, was afterwards exercised by the 
king himself.^ Even the name of the council 
underwent a change in the interest of his autoc- 
racy, and he commanded that it should no longer 
be called the Supreme, but only the Superior 
Council. The same change had just been imposed 
on all the high tribunals of France.^ Under the 
shadow of the fleur-de-lis, the king alone was tc 
be supreme. 

In 1675, the number of councillors was increased 
to seven, and in 1703 it was again increased to 
twelve ; but the character of the council or court 

1 The governor and intendant made frequent appeals to the court to 
settle questions arising between them. Several of these appeals are pre- 
served. The king wrote replies on the margin of the paper, but they 
were usually too curt and general to satisfy either party. 

2 Declaration du Roi du IQme Juin, 1703. Appointments were made by 
the king many years earlier. As they vvere always made on the recom- 
mendation of the governor and intendant, the practical effect of the change 
was merely to exclude the bishop from a share in them. The West 
India Company made the nominations during the ten years of its a» 
cendancy. 

8 Cheruel, Administration Monarchique eu France, U. 100. 



268 THE RULERS OF CAJT^VDA. [1663-1763. 

remained the same. It issued decrees for the civil, 
commercial, and financial government of the col- 
ony, and gave judgment in civil and criminal causes 
according to the royal ordinances and the Coutume 
de Paris. It exercised also the function of reg- 
istration borrowed from the parliament of Paris. 
That body, it will be remembered, had no analogy 
whatever with the English parliament. Its ordi- 
nary functions were not legislative, but judicial ; 
and it was composed of judges hereditary under 
certain conditions. Nevertheless, it had long acted 
as a check on the royal power through its right of 
registration. No royal edict had the force of law 
till entered upon its books, and this custom had 
so deep a root in the monarchical constitution of 
France, that even Louis XIV., in the flush of his 
power, did not attempt to abolish it. He did better ; 
he ordered his decrees to be registered, and the 
humbled parliament submissively obeyed. In like 
manner all edicts, ordinances, or declarations re- 
lating to Canada were entered on the registers of 
the superior council at Quebec. The order of reg- 
istration was commonly affixed to the edict or other 
mandate, and nobody dreamed of disobeying it.^ 

The council or court had its attorney-general, 
who heard complaints 'and brought them before 
the tribunal if he thought necessary ; its secre- 
tary, who kept its registers, and its huissiers or 
attendant officers. It sat once a week ; and, though 

1 Many general edicts relating to the whole kingdom are also regis- 
tered on the books of the council, but the practice in this respect was by 
no means uniform. 



It)0o-i763.j INFERIOR COURTS. 269 

it was the highest court of appeal, it exercised at 
first original jurisdiction in very trivial cases. ^ It 
was empowered to .establish subordinate courts or 
judges throughout the colony. Besides these there 
was a judge appointed by the king for each of the 
three districts into which Canada was divided, those 
of Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal. To each 
of the three royal judges were joined a clerk and 
an attorney-general under the supervision and con- 
trol of the attorney-general of the superior court, to 
which tribunal appeal lay from all the subordinate 
jurisdictions. The jurisdiction of the seigniors within 
their own limits has already been mentioned. They 
were entitled by the terms of their grants to the ex- 
ercise of " high, middle, and low justice ; " but most 
of them were practically restricted to the last of 
the three, that is, to petty disputes between the 
habitans, involving not more than sixty sous, or 
offences for which the fine did not exceed ten sous.^ 
Thus limited, their judgments were often useful 
in saving time, trouble, and money to the dispu- 
tants. The corporate seigniors of Montreal long 
continued to hold a feudal court in form, with at- 
torney-general, clerk, and huissier ; but very few 
other seigniors were in a condition to imitate them. 
Added to all these tribunals was the bishop's court 
at Quebec to try causes held to be within the prov- 
ince of the church. 

1 See the Registres da Conseil Sup€rieur, preserved at Quebec. Be- 
tween 1663 and 1673 are a multitude of judgments on matters great and 
small ; from murder, rape, and infanticide, down to petty nuisances, mis- 
behavior of servants, and disputes about the price of a sow. 

2 Doutre et Lareau, Eistoire du Droit Canadien, 135. 



270 THE RUT.ERS OF CANADA. [1663-176^ 

The office of judge in Canada was no sinecure. 
The people were of a litigious disposition, partly 
from their Norman blood, partly perhaps from the 
idleness of the long and tedious winter, which gave 
full leisure for gossip and quarrel, and partly from 
the very imperfect manner in which titles had bee n 
drawn and the boundaries of grants marked out, 
whence ensued disputes without end between 
neighbor and neighbor. 

" I will not say," writes the satirical La Hontan, 
" that Justice is more chaste and disinterested here 
than in France ; but, at least, if she is sold, she is 
sold cheaper. We do not pass through the clutches 
of advocates, the talons of attorneys, and the claws 
of clerks. These vermin do not infest Canada yet. 
Everybody pleads his own cause. Our Themis is 
prompt, and she does not bristle with fees, costs, and 
charges. The judges have only four hundred francs 
a year, a great temptation to look for law in the 
bottom of the suitor's purse. Four hundred francs ! 
Not enough to buy a cap and gown, so these gentry 
never wear them." ^ 

Thus far La Hontan. Now let us hear the king 
himself. " The greatest disorder which has hith- 
erto existed in Canada," writes Louis XIV. to 
the intendant Meules, " has come from the small 
degree of liberty which the officers of justice have 
had in the discharge of their duties, by reason of 
the violence to which they have been subjected, 
and the part they have been obliged to take in the 

' La Hontan, I. 21 (ed. 1705). In some editions, the above is ex- 
pressed in different language. 



1663-1763.1 THE COUNCILLORS. ^71 

continual quarrels between the governor and the 
intend ant ; insomuch that justice having been ad- 
ministered by cabal and animosity, the inhabitants 
have hitherto been far from the tranquillity and 
repose which cannot be found in a place where 
everybody is compelled to take side with one 
party or another."^ 

Nevertheless, on ordinary local questions be- 
tween the habitants, justice seems to have been 
administered on the whole fairly ; and judges of 
all grades often interposed in their personal ca- 
pacity to bring parties to an agreement without a 
trial. From head to foot, the government kept its» 
attitude of paternity. 

Beyond and above all the regular tribunals, be- 
yond and above the council itself, was the inde 
pendent jurisdiction lodged in the person of the 
king's man, the intendant. His commission em- 
powered him, if he saw fit, to call any cause what- 
ever before himself for judgment; and he judged 
exclusively the cases which concerned the long, 
and those involving the relations of seignior and 
vassal.^ He appointed subordinate judges, from 
whom there was appeal to him; but from his 
decisions, as well as from those of the superioi 
council, there was no appeal but to the king in his 
council of state. 

On any Monday morning one would have founu 
the superior council in session in the antechamber 

1 Instruction du Roy pour le Sieur de Meules, 1682. 

2 See the commissions of various intendants, in Edits et Ordonnances 

m 



272 THE EULEES OF CANADA. [1663-1763. 

of the governor's apartment, at the Chateau St. 
Louis. The members sat at a round table. At the 
head was the governor, with the bisliop on his right, 
and the intendant on his left. The councillors sat 
in the order of their appointment, and the attor- 
ney-general also had his place at the board. As 
La Hontan says, they were not in judicial robes, 
but in their ordinary dress, and all but the bishop 
wore swords.^ The want of the cap and gown 
greatly disturbed the intendant Meules, and he begs 
the minister to consider how important it is that 
the councillors, in order to inspire respect, should 
appear in public in long black robes, which on 
occasions of ceremony they should exchange for 
robes of red. He thinks that the principal persons 
of the colony would thus be induced to train up 
their children to so enviable a dignity ; " and," he 
concludes, " as none of the councillors can afford 
to buy red robes, I hope that the king will vouch- 
safe to send out nine such. As for the black robes, 
they can furnish those themselves."^ The king 
did not respond, and the nine robes never arrived. 
The official dignity of the council was sometimes 
exposed to trials against which even red gowns 
might have proved an insufficient protection. The 
same intendant urges that the tribunal ought to be 
provided immediately with a house of its own. 
- It is not decent," he says, " that it should sit 
in the governor's antechamber any longer. His 
guards and valets make such a noise, that we can- 

1 Compare La Poterie, I. 260, and La Tour, Vie de Laval, Liv. VH. 
i Meules au Ministre, 28 Sevt. 1685. 



166S-1763.J THE COUNCILLORS. 273 

not hear each other speak. I have continually to 
tell them to keep quiet, which causes them to 
make a thousand jokes at the councillors as they 
pass in and out." ^ As the governor and the 
council were often on ill terms, the official head of 
the colony could not always be trusted to keep his 
attendants on their good behavior. The minister 
listened to the complaint of Meules, and adopted 
his suggestion that the government should buy the 
old brewery of Talon, a large structure of mingled 
timber and masonry on the banks of the St. 
Charles. It was at an easy distance from the 
chateau; passing the H5tel Dieu and descending 
the rock, one reached it by a walk of a few 
minutes. It was accordingly repaired, partly 
rebuilt, and fitted up to serve the double piu^pose 
of a lodging for the intendant and a court-house. 
Henceforth the transformed brewery was known 
as the Palace of the Intendant, or the Palace of 
Justice ; and here the council and inferior courts 
long continued to hold their sessions. 

Some of these inferior courts appear to have 
needed a lodging quite as much as the council. 
The watchful Meules informs the minister that the 
royal judge for the district of Quebec was accus- 
tomed in winter, with a view to saving fuel, to 
hear causes and pronounce judgment by his own 
fireside, in the midst of his children, whose gambols 
listurbed the even distribution of justice.^ 

The superior council was not a very harmonious 

1 Meules au Ministre, 12 Nov., 1684. ' Ihid. 

18 



274 THE RULERS OF CANADA. 1 1668-1763. 

body. As its three cMefs, the man/of the sword, 
the man of the church, and thje^man of the law, 
were often at variance, the councillors attached 
themselves to one party or the other, and hot dis- 
putes sometimes ensued. The intendant, though 
but third in rank, presided at the sessions, took 
votes, pronounced judgment, signed papers, and 
called special meetings. This matter of the presi- 
dency was for some time a source of contention 
between him and the governor, till the question 
was set at rest by a decree of the king. 

The inteiidants in their reports to the minister 
do not paint the council in flattering colors. One 
of them complains that the councillors, being busy 
with their farms, neglect their official duties. 
Another says that they are all more or less in 
trade. A third calls them uneducated persons of 
slight account, allied to the chief families and chief 
merchants in Canada, in whose interest they make 
laws ; and he adds that, as a year and a half or 
even two years usually elapse before the answer 
to a complaint is received from France, they take 
advantage of this long interval to the injury of 
the king's service.^ These and other similar 
charges betray the continual friction between the 
several branches of the government. 

The councillors were rarely changed, and they 
usually held office for life. In a few cases the 
king granted to the son of a councillor yet living 
the right of succeeding his father when the charge 

' Meules au Ministre 12 Nov , 1684. 



lfi6L-17i.«.l THE INTEND ANT. 275 

should become vacant.* It was a post of honor 
and not of profit, at least of direct profit. The 
salaries were very small, and coupled with a pro- 
hibition to receive fees. 

Judging solely by the terms of his commission, 
the intendant was the ruling power in the colony. 
He controlled all expenditure of public money, 
and not only presided at the council but was 
clothed in his own person with independent legis- 
lative as well as judicial power. He was author- 
ized to issue ordinances having the force of law 
whenever he thought necessary, and, in the words 
of his commission, " to order every thing as he 
shall see just and proper." ^ He was directed to 
be present at councils of war, though war was the 
special province of his colleague, and to protect 
soldiers and all others from official extortion and 
abuse ; that is, to protect them from the governor. 
Yet there were practical difficulties in the way of 
his apparent power. The king, his master, was 
far away ; but official jealousy was busy around 
him, and his patience was sometimes put to the 
proof. Thus the royal judge of Quebec had fallen 
into irregularities. " I can do nothing with him," 
writes the intendant ; " he keeps on good terms 
with the governor and council and sets me at 
naught." The governor had, as he thought, treated 
him amiss. " You have told me," he writes to the 

1 A son of Amours was named in his fatlier's lifetime to succeed him, 
as was also a son of the attorney-general Auteuil. There are several 
other cases. A son of Tilly, to whom the right of succeeding his fathet 
had been granted, asks leave to sell it to the merchant La Chesnaye 

2 Commissions of Bouteroue, Duchesneau, Meules, etc. 



276 THE RULERS OF CANADA. [1663-1768 

minister, " to bear every thing from him and report 
to you ; " and he proceeds to recount his grievances 
Again, " the attorney-general is bold to insolence, 
and needs to be repressed. The king's interposi- 
tion is necessary." He modestly adds that the in- 
tendant is the only man in Canada whom his Majesty 
can trust, and that he ought to have more power.^ 
These were far from being his only troubles. 
The enormous powers with which his commission 
clothed him were sometimes retrenched by contra- 
dictory instructions from the king ; ^ for this gov- 
ernment, not of laws but of arbitrary will, is marked 
by frequent inconsistencies. When he quarrelled 
with the governor, and the governor chanced to 
have strong friends at court, his position became 
truly pitiable. He was berated as an imperious mas- 
ter berates an offending servant. " Your last letter 
is full of nothing but complaints." " You have 
exceeded your authority." " Study to know your- 
self and to understand clearly the difference there 
is between a governor and an intendant." " Since 
you fail to comprehend the difference between you 
and the officer who represents the king's person, 
you are in danger of being often condemned, or 
rather of being recalled, for his Majesty cannot 
3ndure so many petty complaints, founded on 
nothing but a certain quasi equality between the 
governor and you, which you assume, but which 

1 Meules an Ministre, 12 Nov., 1684. 

2 Thus, Meules is flatly forbidden to compel litigants to bring 
causes before him {Instruction pour le Sieur de Meules, 1682), and this pfo- 
iiibition is nearly of the same date with the commission in which the 
power to do so is expressly given him. 



ir66G-1763.] THE INTEND ANT. 277 

does not exist." "Meddle with nothing beyond 
your functions." " Take good care to tell me 
nothing but the truth." " You ask too many favors 
for your adherents." " You must not spend more 
than you have authority to spend, or it will be 
taken out of your pay." In short, there are several 
letters from the minister Colbert to his colonial 
man- of- all-work, which, from beginning to end, 
are one continued scold. ^ 

The luckless intendant was liable to be held to 
account for the action of natural laws. " If the 
population does not increase in proportion to the 
pains I take," writes the king to Duchesneau, "you 
are to lay the blame on yourself for not having 
executed my principal order {to promote marriages) 
and for having failed in the principal object for 
which I sent you to Canada."^ 

A great number of ordinances of intendants are 
preserved. They were usually read to the people 
at the doors of churches after mass, or sometimes 
by the cure from his pulpit. They relate to a 
great variety of subjects, — regulation of inns and 
markets, ])oaching, preservation of game, sale of 
brandy, rent of pews, stray hogs, mad dogs, tithes, 
matrimonial quarrels, fast driving, wards and guar- 
dians, weights and measures, nuisances, value of 
coinage, trespass on lands, building churches, observ- 
ance of Sunday, preservation of timber, seignior 
and vassal, settlement of boundaries, and many 

' The above examples are all taken from the letters of Colbert to the 
intendant Duchesneau. It is an extreme case, but other intendants are 
occasionally treated with scarcely more ceremony. 

2 le Roi a Duchesneau, 11 Juln, 1680. 



278 THE KULERS OF CANADA. [1663-1768 

other matters. If a cure with some of his parish 
loners reported that his church or his house needed 
repair or rebuilding, the intendant issued an ordi- 
nance requiring all the inhabitants of the parish, 
"both those who have consented and those who 
have not consented," to contribute materials and 
labor, on pain of fine or other penalty.^ The militia 
captain of the cote was to direct the work and see 
that each parishioner did his due part, which was 
determined by the extent of his farm ; so, too, if 
the grand voyer, an officer charged with the super- 
intendence of highways, reported that a new road 
was wanted or that an old one needed mending, 
an ordinance of the intendant set the whole neigh- 
borhood at work upon it, directed, as in the other 
case, by the captain of militia. If children were 
left fatherless, the intendant ordered the cure of 
the parish to assemble their relations or friends for 
the choice of a guardian. If a censitaire did not 
clear his land and live on it, the intendant took it 
from him and gave it back to the seignior.^ 

Chimney-sweeping having been neglected at 
Quebec, the intendant commands all householders 
promptly to do their duty in this respect, and at 
the same time fixes the pay of the sweep at six 
sous a chimney. Another order forbids quarrelling 
in church. Another assigns pews in due order of 
precedence to the seignior, the captain of militia, 
and the wardens. The intendant Raudot, who see jis 

1 See, among many examples, the ordinance of 24th December, 1716. 
Edits et Ordonnances, II. 443. 

2 Compare the numerous ordinances printed In the second and third 
volumes of Edits et Ordonnances. 



1663-1 763.] ABSOLUTISM. 279 

to have been inspired even more than the others 
with the spirit of paternal intervention, issued a 
mandate to the effect that, whereas the people of 
Montreal raise too many horses, which prevents 
them from raising cattle and sheej), " being therein 
ignorant of their true interest. . . . Now, therefore, 
we command that each inhabitant of the cotes of 
this government shall hereafter own no more than 
two horses or mares and one foal ; the same to take 
effect after the sowing-season of the ensuing year, 
1710, giving them time to rid themselves of their 
horses in excess of said number, after wliich they 
will be required to kill any of such excess that may 
remain in their possession." ' Many other ordi- 
nances, if not equally preposterous, are equally 
stringent ; such, for example, as that of the inten- 
dant Bigot, in which, mth a view of promoting 
agriculture, and protecting the morals of the farmers 
by saving them from the temptations of cities, he 
proclaims to them : " We prohibit and forbid you 
to remove to this town ( Quebec) under any pretext 
whatever, without our permission in writing, on 
pain of being expelled and sent back to your farms, 
your furniture and goods confiscated, and a fine of 
fifty livres laid on you for the benefit of the hos- 
pitals. And, furthermore, we forbid all inhabitants 
of the city to let houses or rooms to persons coming 
from the country, on pain of a fine of a hundred 
livres, also applicable to the hospitals." ^ At about 
the same time a royal edict, designed to prevent 
the undue subdivision of farms, forbade the country 

• Edits et Ordonnances, II. 273. 2 Ibid., U. 399. 



280 THE RULERS OF CANADA. [166^-1763 

people, except such as were authorized to hve in 
villages, to build a house or barn on any piece of 
land less than one and a half arpents wide and 
tliirty arpents long ; ^ while a subsequent ordinance 
of the intendant commands the immediate demoli- 
tion of certain houses built in contravention of the 
edict.^ 

The spirit of absolutism is everywhere apparent. 
" It is of very great consequence," writes the in- 
tendant Meules, " that the people should not be 
left at liberty to speak their minds." ^ 

Hence public meetings were jealously restricted. 
Even those held by parishioners under the eye of 
the cure to estimate the cost of a new church seem 
to have required a special license from the inten- 
dant. During a ijumber of years a meeting of the 
principal inhabitants of Quebec was called in spring 
and autumn by the council to discuss the price and 
quality of bread, the supply of firewood, and other 
similar matters. The council commissioned two of 
its members to preside at these meetings, and on 
hearing their report took what action it thought 
best. Thus, after the meeting held in February, 
1686, it issued a decree, in which, after a long and 
formal preamble, it solemnly ordained, " that be- 
sides white-bread and light brown-bread, all bakers 
shall hereafter make dark brown-bread whenever 
the same shall be required." * Such assemblies, so 
controlled, could scarcely, one would think, wound 

1^ Edits et Ordonnances, I. 585. ^ lf,{d.^ n. 400. 

3 " I] ne laisse pas d'etre de tres grande consequence de ne pas laissei 
la liberte au peuple de dire son sentiment." — Meules au Ministre, 1686. 
♦ Edits et Ordonnances, II. 112. 



;o63-1763.1 ABSOLUTISM. 281 

the tenclerest susceptibilities of cauthority ; yet 
there was evident distrust of them, and after a 
few years this modest shred of self-government is 
seen no more. The syndic, too, that functionary 
whom the people of the to^vns were at first allowed 
to clioose, under the eye of the authorities, was 
conjured out of existence by a word from the king. 
Seignior, censitaire, and citizen were prostrate ahkc 
in flat subjection to the royal will. They were not 
free even to go home to France. No inhabitant 
of Canada, man or woman, could do so without 
eave ; and several intendants express their belief 
that without this precaution there would soon be a 
falling off in the population. 

In 1671 the council issued a curious decree. 
One Paul Dupuy had been heard to say that there 
is nothing like righting one's self, and that when 
the English cut off the head of Charles I. they did 
a good thing, with other discourse to the like effect 
The council declared him guilty of speaking iU o 
royalty in the person of the king of England, ana 
utterino; words tendino; to sedition. He was con- 
lemned to be dragged from prison by the pubhc 
executioner, and led in his shirt, with a rope about 
his neck, and a torch in his hand, to the gate of 
the Chateau St. Louis, there to beg pardon of the 
king ; thence to the pillory of the Lower Town to 
be branded Avith a jleur-de-lis on the cheek, and 
set in the stocks for half an hour ; then to be led 
back to prison, and put in irons " till the informa- 
tion against him shall be completed." ^ 

' .lupements et Deliberations du Conseil Sup^iieur. 



282 THE RULERS OF CANADA. :iG63-1763. 

If irreverence to royalty was this rigorously 
chastised, irreverence to God was threatened with 
still sharper penalties. Louis XIV., ever haunted 
with the fear of the devil, sought protection against 
him by his famous edict against swearing, duly 
registered on the books of the council at Quebec. 
" It is our will and pleasure," says this pious man- 
date. " that all persons convicted of profane swear- 
ing or blaspheming the name of God, the most 
Holy Virgin, his mother, or the saints, be con- 
demned for the first offence to a pecuniary fine 
according to their possessions and the greatness 
and enormity of the oath and blasphemy ; and if 
those thus punished repeat the said oaths, then for 
the second, third, and fourth time they shall be 
condemned to a double, triple, and quadruple line ; 
and for the fifth time, they shall be set in the 
pillory on Sunday or other festival days, there to 
remain from eight in the morning till one in the 
afternoon, exposed to aU sorts of opprobrium and 
abuse, and be condemned besides to a heavy fine ; 
and for the sixth time, they shall be led to the 
pillory, and there have the upper lip cut with a 
hot iron ; and for the seventh time, they shall be 
led to the pillory and have the lower hp cut ; and 
if, by reason of obstinacy and inveterate bad habit, 
they continue after all these punishments to utter 
the said oaths and blasphemies, it is our will and 
command that they have the tongue completely 
cut out, so that thereafter they cannot utter them 
again." ^ All those who should hear anybody 

* Edit du Roy contre les Jureurs et Blasph€m.ateurs, du SOme Juillel, 160& 
See Edits et Ordonnances, I. 62. 



lot)3-17C)3.| CANADIAN JUSTICE. 28S 

swear were further required to report the fact to 
the nearest judge within twenty-four hours, on 
pain of fine. 

This is far from being the only instance in which 
the temporal power lends aid to the spiritual. 
Among other cases, the following is worth men- 
tioning ; Louis Gaboury, an inhabitant of the island 
of Orleans, charged with eating meat in Lent with- 
out asking leave of the priest, was condemned by 
the local judge to be tied three hours to a stake 
in public, and then led to the door of the chapel, 
there on his knees, with head bare and hands 
clasped, to ask pardon of God and the king. The 
culprit appealed to the council, which revoked the 
sentence and imposed only a fine.-^ 

The due subordination of households had its 
share of attention. Servants who deserted their 
masters were to be set in the pillory for the first 
offence, and whipped and branded for the second ; 
while any person harboring them was to pay a fine 
of twenty francs.^ On the other hand, nobody was 
allowed to employ a servant without a license.^ 

Li case of heinous charges, torture of the accused 
was permitted under the French law ; and it was 
sometimes practised in Canada. Condemned mur- 
derers and felons were occasionally tortured before 
being strangled ; and the dead body, enclosed in a 
kind of iron cage, was left hanging for months at 
the top of Cape Diamond, a terror to children and 
a warning to evil-doers. Yet, on the whole, Cana- 

1 Doutre et Lareau, Histoire du Droit Canadien, 163. 

2 R^glement de Police, 1676. 

* Edits et Ordonnances, II. 63. 



284 THE RULERS OF CANADA. fl663-176U, 

dian justice, tried by the standard of tlie time, was 
neither vindictive nor cruel. 

In reading the voluminous correspondence of 
governors and intendants, the minister and the 
king, nothing is more apparent than the interest 
with which, in the early part of his reign, Louis 
XIV. regarded his colony. One of the faults of 
his rule is the excess of his benevolence ; for not 
only did he give money to support parish priests, 
build churches, and aid the seminary, the Ursulines, 
the missions, and the hospitals ; but he established 
a fund destined, among other objects, to relieve 
indigent persons, subsidized nearly every branch 
of trade and industry, and in other instances did 
for the colonists what they would far better have 
learned to do for themselves. 

Meanwhile the officers of government were far 
from suffering from an excess of royal beneficence. 
La Hontan says that the local governor of Three 
Rivers would die of hunger if, besides his pay, he 
did not gain something by trade with the Indians ; 
and that Perrot, local governor of Montreal, with 
t)ne thousand crowns of salary, traded to such pur- 
pose that in a few years he made fifty thousand 
crowns. This trade, it may be observed, was in vio- 
lation of the royal edicts. The pay of the governor- 
general varied from time to time. When La Poterie 
wrote it was twelve thousand francs a year, besides 
three thousand which he received in his capacity 
of local governor of Quebec.^ This would hardly 

* In 1674, the governor-general received 20,718 francs, out of which 
"le was to pay 8,718 to his guard of twenty men and officers. Ordon 



1663-1763.] ABUSES. 285 

tempt a Frenchman of rank to expatriate himself ; 
and yet some, at l6ast, of the governors came out 
to the colony for the express purpose of mending 
their fortunes ; indeed, the liigher nobility could 
scarcely, in time of peace, have other motives for 
going there. The court and the army were their 
element, and to be elsewhere was banishment. We 
shall see hereafter by what means they sought 
compensation for their exile in Canadian forests. 
Loud complaints sometimes found theii way to 
Versailles. A memorial addressed to the regent 
duke of Orleans, immediately after the king's death, 
declares that the ministers of state, who have been 
the real managers of the colony, have made their 
creatures and relations governors and intendanis, 
and set them free from all responsibility. High 
colonial officers, pursues the writer, come home 
rich, while the colony languishes almost to perish- 
ing.^ As for lesser offices, they were multiplied 
to satisfy needy retainers, till lean and starving 
Canada was covered with official leeches, sucking, 
in famished desperation, at her bloodless veins. 
The whole system of administration centred in 

nance du Roy, 1675. Yet in 1677, in the Etat de la Dipense que le Roy veut 
et ordonne estre faite, etc., the total pay of the governor-general is set 
Jown at 3,000 francs, and so also in 1681, 1682, and 1687. The local 
governor of Montreal was to have 1,800 francs, and the governor of 
Three Rivers 1,200. It is clear, however, that this Etai de d€pense is not 
complete, as there is no provision for the intendant. The first councillor 
received 500 francs, and the rest 300 francs each, equal in Canadian 
money to 400. An ordinance of 1676 gives the intendant 12,000 francs. 
It is tolerably clear that the provision of 3,000 francs for the governor- 
general was meant only to apply to his capacity of local governor of 
Quebec. 

1 M^moire address^ au Regent 1716 



286 THE EULERS OF CANADA. 1 16(53-1753 

the king, who, to borrow the formula of his edicts, 
" in the f uhiess of our power and our certain knowl- 
edge," was supposed to direct the whole machine, 
from its highest functions to its pettiest interven- 
tion in private affairs. That this theory, like all 
extreme theories of government, was an illusion, 
is no fault of Louis XIV. Hard-working monarch 
as he was, he spared no pains to guide his distant 
colony in the paths of prosperity. The prolix 
letters of governors and intendants were carefully 
studied ; and many of the replies, signed by the 
royal hand, enter into details of surprising minute- 
ness. That the. king himself wrote these letters is 
incredible ; but in the early part of his reign he 
certainly directed and controlled them. At a later 
time, when more absorbing interests engrossed 
him, he could no longer study in person the long- 
winded despatches of his Canadian officers. They 
were usually addressed to the minister of state, 
who caused abstracts to be made from them, ior 
the king's use, and perhaps for his own.^ The 
minister or the minister's secretary could suppress 
or color as he or those who influenced him saw fit. 
In the latter half of his too long reign, when 
cares, calamities, and humiliations were thickening 
around the king, another influence was added to 
make the theoretical supremacy of his royal will 
more than ever a mockery. That prince of annal- 
ists, Saint-Simon, has painted Louis XIV. ruling 
his realm from the bedchamber of Madame de 

1 Many of these abstracts are still preserved in the Archives of the 
Marine and Colonies. 



1663-17G3.] THE KING AND THE MINISTER. 287 

Maintenon; seated with his minister at a small 
table beside the fire, the king in an arm-chair, the 
minister on a stool with liis bag of papers on a 
second stool near him. In another arm-chair, at 
[mother table, on the other side of the fire, sat the 
sedate favorite, busy to all appearance with a book 
or a piece of tapestry, but listening to every thing 
that passed. " She rarely spoke," says Saint-Simon, 
" except when the king asked her opinion, which 
he often did ; and then she answered with great 
deliberation and gravity. She never or very rarely 
showed a partiahty for any measure, still less for 
any person ; but she had an understanding with the 
minister, who never dared do otherwise than she 
wished. Whenever any favor or appointment was 
in question, the business was settled between them 
beforehand. She would send to the minister that 
she wanted to speak to him, and he did not dare 
bring the matter on the carpet till he had received 
her orders." Saint-Simon next recounts the subtle 
methods by which Maintenon and the minister, 
her tool, beguiled the king to do their will, while 
never doubting that he was doing his own. " He 
thought," concludes the annalist, " that it was he 
alone who disposed of all appointments ; while in 
reality he disposed of very few indeed, except on 
the rare occasions when he had taken a fancy to 
somebody, or when somebody whom he wanted to 
favor had spoken to him in behalf of somebody 
else."* 

1 M^moires du Due de Saint-Simon, XIII. 38, 39 (Cheruel, 1857). Saint- 
Simon, notwithstanding the independence of his character, held a high 



288 THE RULERS OF CANADA. [1663-1763 

Add to all this the rarity of communication with 
the distant colony. The ships from France arrived 
at Quebec in July, August, or September, and 
returned in November. The machine of -Canadian 
government, wound up once a year, was expected 
to run unaided at least a twelvemonth. Indeed, 
it was often left to itself for two years, such was 
sometimes the tardiness of the overburdened gov- 
ernment in answering the despatches of its colonial 
agents. It is no matter of surprise that a writer 
well versed in its affairs calls Canada the " country 
of abuses." ^ 

position at court ; and his acute and careful observation, joined to his 
familiar acquaintance with ministers and other functionaries, both in and 
out of office, gives a rare value to his matchless portraitures. 
1 Etat present du Canada, 1768. 



CHAPTER XVU. 

1663-1763. 

TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 

Tradb IK Fetters. — The Huguenot Merchants. — Royal Pat- 
ronage. — The Fisheries. — Cries vor Help. — Agriculture. 

— Manufactures. — Arts of Ornament. — Finance. — Card 
Money. — Repudiation. — Imposts. — The Beaver Trade. — 
The Fair at Montreal. — Contraband Trade. — A Fatal 
System. — Trouble and Change. — The Coureurs de Bois. 

— The Forest. — Letter of Carheil. 

We have seen the head of the colony, its guiding 
intellect and will : it remains to observe its organs 
of nutrition. Whatever they might have been 
under a different treatment, they were perverted 
and enfeebled by the regimen to which they were 
subjected. 

The spirit of restriction and monopoly had ruled 
from the beginning. The old governor Lauson, 
seignior for a while of a great part of the colony, 
held that Montreal had no right to trade directly 
with France, but must draw all her supplies from 
Quebec ; ^ and this preposterous claim was revived 
in the time of Mezy. The successive companies 
to whose hands the colony was consigned had a 
baneful effect on individual enterprise. In 1674, 

^ Faillon, Colonie I'ranqaise, 11. 244. 
19 



290 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1GG3-1763 

the charter of the West India Company was revoked, 
and trade was declared open to all subjects of the 
king ; yet commerce was still condemned to wear 
the ball and chain. New restrictions were imposed, 
meant for good, but resulting in evil. Merchants 
not resident in the colony were forbidden all trade, 
direct or indirect, with the Indians.^ They were 
also forbidden to sell any goods at retail except in 
August, September, and October ; ^ to trade any- 
where in Canada above Quebec ; and to sell clothing 
or domestic articles ready made. This last restric- 
tion was designed to develop colonial industry. 
No person, resident or not, could trade with the 
Enghsh colonies, or go thither without a special 
passport, and rigid examination by the military 
authorities.^ Foreign trade of any kind was stiffly 
prohibited. In 1719, after a new company had 
engrossed the beaver trade, its agents were empow- 
ered to enter all houses in Canada, whether eccle- 
siastical or secular, and search them for foreign 
goods, which when found were publicly burned.^ 
In the next year, the royal council ordered that 
vessels engaged in foreign trade should be captured 
by force of arms, like pirates, and confiscated along 
with their cargoes;^ while anybody having an 
article of foreign manufacture in his possession 
was subjected to a heavy fine.^ 

Attempts were made to fix the exact amount 
of profit which merchants from France should be 

1 B^glement de Police, 1676, Art. xl. 

» Edits et Ord., II. 100. » Ibid., I. 489. 

4 Hid.. I. 402. 6 Ibid., I. 425. « Ibid., I. 505. 



1563-1763.] HERESY AND TEADE. 291 

allowed to make in the colony. One of the first 
nets of the superior council was to order them to 
bring their invoices immediately before that body, 
which thereupon affixed prices to each article. 
The merchant who sold and the purchaser who 
bought above this tariff were alike condemned 
to heavy penalties ; and so, too, was the mer- 
chant who chose to keep his goods rather than 
sell them at the price ordained.^ Resident mer- 
chants, on the other hand, were favored to the 
utmost. They could sell at what price they saw 
fit ; and, according to La Hontan, they made great 
profit by the sale of laces, ribbons, watches, jewels, 
and similar superfluities to the poor but extravagant 
colonists. 

A considerable number of the non-resident mer- 
chants were Huguenots, for most of the importa- 
tions were from the old Huguenot city of Rochelle. 
No favor was shown them ; they were held under 
rigid restraint, and forbidden to exercise their 
religion, or to remain in the colony during winter 
without special hcense.^ This sometimes bore very 
hard upon them. The governor Denonville, an 
ardent Catholic, states the case of one Bernon, who 
had done great service to the colony, and whom 
La Hontan mentions as the principal French mer- 
chant in the Canadian trade. " It is a pity," says 
Denonville, " that he cannot be converted. As he 
is a Huguenot, the bishop wants me to order him 
home this autumn, which I have done, though he 

1 Edits et Ord., II. 17, 19. 

* Reglement de Police, 1676. Art. xxxvii. 



292 TRADE AND INDUSTRr. [1663-1763 

carries on a large business, and a great deal of 
money remains due to him here." ^ 

For a long time the ships from France went 
home empty, except a favored few which carried 
furs, or occasionally a load of dried pease or of 
timber. Payment was made in money when there 
was any in Canada, or in bills of exchange. The 
colony, drawing every thing from France, and 
returning little besides beaver skins, remained 
under a load of debt. French merchants were dis • 
couraged, and shipments from France languished. 
As for the trade with the West Indies, which Talon 
had tried by precept and example to build up, the 
intendant reports in 1680 that it had nearly ceased ; 
though six years later it grew again to the modest 
proportions of three vessels loaded with wheat.^ 

The besetting evil of trade and industry in 
Canada was the habit they contracted, and were 
encouraged to contract, of depending on the direct 
aid of government. Not a new enterprise was set 
on foot without a petition to the king to lend a 
helping hand. Sometimes the petition was sent 
through the governor, sometimes through the in- 
tendant ; and it was rarely refused. Denonville 
writes that the merchants of Quebec, by a com- 
bined effort, had sent a vessel of sixty tons to 
France with colonial produce ; and he asks that 
the royal commissaries at Rochefort be instructed 
to buy the whole cargo, in order to encourage so 

1 Denonville au Ministre, 1685. 

* Ibid., 1686. The year before, about 18,000 minots of grain were cent 
hither. In 1736, the shipments reached 80,000 minots. 



1G63-1763.J ROYAL PATRONAGE. 293 

deserving an enterprise. One Hazeur set up a 
saw-mill, at Mai Bay. Finding a large stock of 
planks and timber on his hands, he begs the king 
to send two vessels to carry them to France ; and 
the king accordingly did so. A similar request 
was made in behalf of another saw-mill at St. Paul's 
Bay. Denonville announces that one Riverin 
wishes to embark in the whale and cod fishery, 
and that though strong in zeal he is weak in re- 
sources. The minister replies, that he is to be 
encouraged, and that his Majesty will favorably 
consider his enterprise.^ Various gifts were soon 
after made him. He now took to himself a part- 
ner, the Sieur Chalons ; whereupon the governor 
writes to ask the minister's protection for them. 
" The Basques," he says, " formerly carried on this 
fishery, but some monopoly or other put a stop to 
it." The remedy he proposes is homoeopathic. 
He asks another monopoly for the two partners. 
Louis Johet, the discoverer of the Mississippi, made 
a fishing station on the island of Anticosti ; and he 
begs help from the king, on the ground that his 
fishery will furnish a good and useful employment 
t(j young men. The Sieur Vitry wished to begin 
a fisher}' of white porpoises, and he begs the king 

1 The interest felt by the king in these matters is shown in a letter 
signed by his hand in which he enters with considerable detail into the 
plans of Riverin. Le Roy u Denonville et Champiyny, I Mai, 1689. lie 
afterwards ordered boats, harpooners, and cordage to be sent him, for 
which he was to pay at his convenience. Four years later, he com- 
plains that, though Riverin had been often helped, his fisheries were of 
slight account. "Let him take care," pursues the king, "that he does 
not use his enterprises as a pretext to obtain favors.". M^moire dn Rov 
h Frontenac et Champigny, 1693 



294 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-176,. 

to give him two thousand pounds of cod-hne and 
two thousand pounds of one and two inch rope. 
His request was granted, on which he asked for 
five hundred hvres. The money was given him, 
and the next year he asked to have the gift 
renewed.^ 

The king was very anxious to develop the fish- 
eries of the colony. " His Majesty," writes the 
minister, " wishes you to induce the inhabitants to 
unite with the merchants for this object, and to 
ncite them by all sorts of means to overcome their 
natural laziness, since there is no other way of 
saving them from the misery in which they now 
are." ^ "I wish," says the zealous Denonville, 
"that fisheries could be well established to give 
employment to our young men, and prevent them 
from running wild in the woods ; " and he adds 
mournfully, "they {the fisheries) are enriching 
Boston at our expense." " They are our true 
mines," urges the intendant Meules; "but the 
English of Boston have got possession of those of 
Acadia, which belong to us ; and we ought to pre- 
vent it." It was not prevented ; and the Canadian 

1 All the above examples are drawn from the correspondence of the 
governor and intendant with the minister, between 1680 and 1699, to- 
gether with a memorial of Hazeur and another of Riverin, addressed to 
the minister. 

Vitry's porpoise-fishing appears to have ended in failure. In 1707 the 
intendant Raudot granted the porpoise fishery of the seigniory of Riviere 
Quelle to six of the habitans. This fishery is carried on here successfully 
at the present day. A very interesting account of it was published in the 
Opinion PuhUque, 1873, by my friend Abbe Casgrain, whose family resi- 
deace is the seigniorial mansion of Riviere Quelle. 

2 M^moire pour Denonville et Champigny, 8 Mars, 1688. 



I6G3-1763.1 THE FISHERIES. 295 

fisheries, like other branches of Canadian industry, 
remained in a state of almost hopeless languor.^ 

The government applied various stimulants. One 
of these, proposed by the intendant Duchesneau, is 
characteristic. He advises the formation of a com- 
pany which should have the exclusive right of 
exporting fish; but which on its part should be 
required to take, at a fixed price, all that the in- 
habitants should bring them. This notable plan 
did not find favor with the king.^ It was practised, 
however, in the case of beaver skins, and also in 
that of wood-ashes. The farmers of the revenue 
wero required to take this last commodity at a 
fixed price, on their own risk, and in any quantity 
offered. They remonstrated, saying that it was 
unsalable ; adding that, if the inhabitants would 
but take the trouble to turn it into potash, it might 
be possible to find a market for it. The king 
released them entirely, coupling his order to that 
effect with a eulogy of free trade. ^ 

In all departments of industry, the appeals for 
help are endless. Governors and intendants are 
so many sturdy beggars for the languishing colony. 

• The Canadian fisheries must not be confounded with the French 
fisheries of Newfoundland, which were prosperous, but were carried on 
wholly from French ports. 

In a memorial addressed by the partners Chalons and Riverin to the 
minister Seignelay, they say: "Baston (Boston) et toute sa colonie nous 
donne un exemple qui fait honte k nostre nation, puisqu'elle s'augmente 
tous les jours par cette pesche (de la morue) qu'elle fait la plus grande 
partie sur nos costes pendant que les Fran9ois ne s'occupent k rien." 
Meules urges that the king should undertake the fishing business himself 
Bince his subjects cannot or will not. 

^ Ministre a Duchesneau, 15 Mai, 1678 

• Le Roy a Duchesi Aau, 11 Juin, 1680. 



296 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-1763 

" Send us money to build storehouses, to which the 
habitants can bring their produce and receive 
goods from the government in exchange." " Send 
us a teacher to make sailors of our young men : 
it is a pit}^ the colony should remain in such a 
state for want of instruction for youth." ^ " We 
want a surgeon : there is none in Canada who can 
set a bone."^ "Send us some tilers, brick-makers, 
and potters." ^ " Send us iron-workers to work our 
mines."* "It is to be wished that his Majesty 
would send us all sorts of artisans, especially pot- 
ters and glass-workers." ^ " Our Canadians need 
aid and instruction in their fisheries; they need 
pilots." « 

In 1688, the intendant reported that Canada 
was entirely without either pilots or sailors ; and, 
as late as 1712, the engineer Catalogue informed 
the government that, though the St. Lawrence was 
dangerous, a pilot was rarely to be had. " There 
ought to be trade mth the West Indies and other 
places," urges another writer. " Everybody says 
it is best, but nobody will undertake it. Our mer- 
chants are too poor, or else are engrossed by the 
fur trade." ^ 

The languor of commerce made agriculture lan- 
guish. "It is of no use now," writes Meules, 

1 M€moire a Mcnseigneur le Marquis de Seignday, pr^sent^ par let Sieun 
Chalons et liiverin, 1686. 

2 Champigny an Mlnistre, 1688. 
8 Ibid. 

* DenonviUe au Ministre, 1686. 

5 Memoir e de Catalogue, 1712. 

6 DenonviUe au Ministre, 1686. 

^ M€moire de Chalons et Riverin prisentgau Marquis de Seigndajf. 



1663 1763.1 MANUFACTURES. 297 

in 1682, "to raise any crops except what each 
family wants for itself." In vain the government 
sent out seeds for distribution. In vain intendants 
lectured the farmers, and lavished well-meant ad- 
vice. Tillage remained careless and slovenly. 
" If," says the all-observing Catalogue, " the soil 
were not better cultivated in Europe than here, 
three-fourths of the people would starve." He 
complains that the festivals of the church are so 
numerous that not ninety working days are left 
during the whole working season. The people, he 
says, ought to be compelled to build granaries to 
store their crops, instead of selling them in autumn 
for almost nothing, and every habitant should be 
required to keep two or three sheep. The intend- 
ant Champigny calls for seed of hemp and flax, 
and promises to visit the farms, and show the 
people the lands best suited for their culture. He 
thinks that favors should be granted to those who 
raise hemp and flax as weU as to those who marry. 
Denonville is of opinion that each habitant should 
be compelled to raise a little hemp every year, 
and that the king should then buy it of him at a 
high price. ^ It will be well, he says, to make use 
of severity, while, at the same time, holding out 
a hope of gain ; and he begs that weavers be sent 
out to teach the women and girls, who spend the 
winter in idleness, how to weave and spin. Weav- 
ing and spinning, however, as well as the cultm-e 
of hemp and flax, were neglected tiU 1705, when 
the loss of a ship laden with goods for tht^ colony 

• Denonville au Ministre, 13 Nov.. 1685 



298 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. /16G3-1763 

gave the spur to home industry ; and Madame de 
Repentigny set the example of making a kind of 
coarse blanket of nettle and linden bark.^ 

The jealousy of colonial manufactures shown by 
England appears but rarely in the relations of 
France with Canada. According to its light, the 
French government usually did its best to stimu- 
late Canadian industry, with what results we have 
just seen. There was afterwards some improve- 
ment. In 1714, the intendant B^gon reported that 
coarse fabrics of wool and linen were made ; that 
the sisters of the congregation wore cloth for their 
own habits as good as the same stuffs in France ; 
that black cloth was made for priests, and blue cloth 
for the pupils of the colleges. The inhabitants, 
he says, have been taught these arts by necessity. 
They were naturally adroit at handiwork of all 
kinds; and during the last half century of the 
French rule, when the population had settled into 
comparative stabihty, many of the mechanic arts 
were practised with success, notwithstanding the 
assertion of the Abbe La Tour that every thing 
but bread and meat had still to be brought from 
France. This change may be said to date from 
the peace of Utrecht, or a few years before it. At 
that time, one Duplessis had a new vessel on the 
stocks. Catalogue, who states the fact, calls it the 
beginning of ship-building in Canada, evidently 
ignorant that Talon had made a fruitless beginning 
more than forty years before. 

Of the arts of ornament not much could have 

^ Beaukarnois et Baudot au Ministre, 1705. 



16G3-1763.] FINANCE. 2'd9 

been expected ; but, strangely enough, they were 
in somewhat better condition than the useful arts. 
The nuns of the Hotel-Dieu made artificial flowers 
for altars and shrines, under the direction of Mother 
Juchereau ; ' and the boys of the seminary were 
taught to make carvings in wood for the decoration 
of churches.^ Pierre, son of the merchant Le Ber, 
had a turn for painting, and made religious pictures, 
described as very indifferent.^ His sister Jeanne, 
an enthusiastic devotee, made embroideries for 
vestments and altars, and her work was much 
admired. 

The colonial finances were not prosperous. In 
the absence of coin, beaver-skins long served as 
currency. In 1669, the council declared wheat a 
legal tender, at four francs the minot or three 
French bushels ; * and, five years later, all creditors 
were ordered to receive moose-skins in payment at 
the market rate.^ Coin would not remain in the 
colony. If the company or the king sent an}' 
thither, it went back in the returning ships. The 
government devised a remedy. A coinage was 
ordered for Canada one-fourth less in value than 
that of France. Thus the Canadian livre or franc 
was worth, in reality, fifteen sous instead of twenty.^ 
This shallow expedient produced only a nominal 
rise of prices, and coin fled the colony as before. 

1 Juchereau, Hist, de V Hdtd-Dieu, 244. 

2 Abeille, II., 13. 

3 Faillon, Vie de Mile. Le Ber, 831. 
* Edits et Ord., H. 47. 

5 Ibid., II. 55. 

6 This device was of very early date. See Boucher, Hist. ViriuMa, 
chap, xiy- 



300 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 11663-1763 

Trade was carried on for a time by means of nego- 
tiable notes, payable in furs, goods, or farm prod- 
uce. In 1685, the intendant Meules issued a 
card currency. He had no money to pay the 
soldiers, " and not knowing," he informs the min- 
ister, " to what saint to make my vows, the idea 
occurred to me of putting in circulation notes 
made of cards, each cut into four pieces ; and I 
have issued an ordinance commanding the inhabi- 
tants to receive them in payment." ^ The cards 
were common playing cards, and each piece was 
stamped with a. Jleur-de-lis and a crown, and signed 
by the governor, the intendant, and the clerk of 
the treasury at Quebec.^ The example of Meules 
found ready imitation. Governors and intendants 
made card money whenever they saw fit ; and, 
being worthless everywhere but in Canada, it 
showed no disposition to escape the colony. It 
was declared convertible not into coin, but into 
bills of exchange ; and this conversion could only 
take place at brief specified periods. " The cur- 
rency used in Canada," says a writer in the last 
years of the French rule, " has no value as a repre- 
sentative of money. It is the sign of a sign." ^ It 
was card representing paper, and this paper was very 
often dishonored. In 1714, the amount of card 
rubbish had risen to two million livres. Confidence 
was lost, and trade was half dead. The minister 
Ponchartrain came to the rescue, and promised to 



1 Meules au Ministre, 24 Sept., 1685. 

2 M^moire address^ au Regent, 1715. 

3 Considerations sur I'Etat du Canada, 1758. 



J663 1763.] KEPUDIATIO^. ' 301 

redeem it at half its nominal value. The holders 
preferred to lose half rather than the whole, and 
accepted the terms. A few of the cards were 
redeemed at the rate named; then the govern- 
ment broke faith, and payment ceased. "This 
afflicting news," says a writer of the time, "was 
brought out by the vessel which sailed from France 
last July." 

In 1717, the government made another proposal, 
and the cards were converted into bills of exchange. 
At the same time a new issue was made, which it 
was declared should be the last.^ This issue was 
promptly redeemed, but twelve years later another 
followed it. In the interval, a certain quantity of 
coin circulated in the colony ; but it underwent 
fluctuations through the intervention of govern- 
ment ; and, within eight years, at least four edicts 
were issued affecting its value. ^ Then came more 
promises to pay, till, in the last bitter years of its 
existence, the colony floundered in drifts of worth- 
less paper. 

One characteristic grievance was added to the 
countless woes of Canadian commerce. The gov- 
ernment was so jealous of popular meetings of all 
kinds, that for a long time it forbade merchants to 
meet together for discussing their affairs ; and, it 
was not tiU 1717 that the estabhshment of a bourse 
or exchange was permitted at Quebec and Mon- 
treal.^ 

In respect of taxation, Canada, as compared with 

1 Edits et Ord., I. 370. 2 md., 400, 432, 436, 484, 

' Doutre et Lareau, Hist, du Droit Canadien, 254. 



302 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [16631768 

France, had no reason to complain. If the king 
permitted governors and intendants to make card 
money, he permitted nobody to impose taxes but 
himself. The Canadians paid no direct civil tax, 
except in a few instances where temporary and 
local assessments were ordered for special objects. 
It was the fur trade on which the chief burden 
fell. One-fourth of the beaver-skins, and one-tenth 
of the moose-hides, belonged to the king ; and wine, 
brandy, and tobacco contributed a duty of ten pei 
cent. During a long course of years, these were 
the only imposts. The king, also, retained the 
exclusive right of the fur trade at Tadoussac. A 
vast tract of wilderness extending from St. Paul's 
Bay to a point eighty leagues down the St. Law- 
rence, and stretching indefinitely northward towards 
Hudson's Bay, formed a sort of royal preserve, 
whence every settler was rigidly excluded. The 
farmers of the revenue had their trading-houses at 
Tadoussac, whither the northern tribes, until war, 
pestilence, and brandy consumed them, brought 
every summer a large quantity of furs. 

When, in 1674, the West India Company, to 
whom these imposts had been granted, was extin- 
guished, the king resumed possession of them. The 
various duties, along with the trade of Tadoussac, 
were now farmed out to one Oudiette and his 
associates, who paid the Crown three hundred and 
fifty thousand hvres for their privilege.^ 



^ The annual return to the king from tbeferme du Canada was, for some 
years, 119,000 francs (livres). Out of this were paid from 35,000 to 40,000 
francs a year for " ordinary charges." The governor, intendant, and all 



1663-1763.] THE BEAVER TRADE. 303 

We come now to a trade far more important 
than all the rest together, one which absorbed 
the enterprise of the colony, drained the Ufe- 
sap from other branches of commerce, and, even 
more than a vicious system of government, kept 
them in a state of chronic debihty, — the haidy, 
adventurous, lawless, fascinating fur trade. In 
the eighteenth century, Canada exported a mod- 
erate quantity of timber, wheat, the herb called 
ginseng, and a few other commodities; but from 
first to last she lived chiefly on beaver-skins. The 
government tried without ceasing to control and 
regulate this traffic ; but it never succeeded. It 
aimed, above all things, to bring the trade home 
to the colonists, to prevent them from going to 
the Indians, and induce the Indians to come to 
them. To this end a great annual fair was estab- 
lished by order of the king at Montreal. Thither 
every summer a host of savages came down from 
the lakes in their bark canoes. A place was assigned 
them at a little distance from the town. They 
landed, drew up their canoes in a line on the bank, 
took out their packs of beaver-skins, set up their 
wigwams, slung their kettles, and encamped for 
the night. On the next day, there was a grand 
council on the common, between St. Paul Street 
and the river. Speeches of compliment were made 

troops except the small garrisons of Quebec, Montreal, and Three Rivers, 
were paid from other sources. There was a time when the balance must 
have been in the king's favor ; but profit soon changed to loss, owing 
partly to wars, partly to the confusion into which the beaver trade soon 
fell. " His Majesty," writes the minister to the governor in 1698, " may 
Boon grow tired of a colony which, far from yielding him any profit, costs 
biiii immense sums eveiy year." 



304 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-1763 

amid a solemn smoking of pipes. The governor- 
general was usually present, seated in an arm-chair, 
while the visitors formed a ring about him, ranged 
in the order of their tribes. On the next day the 
trade began in the same place. Merchants of high 
and low degree brought up their goods from Que- 
bec, and every inhabitant of Montreal, of any sub- 
stance, sought a share in the profit. Their booths 
were set along the palisades of the town, and each 
had an interpreter, to whom he usually promised a 
certain portion of his gains. The scene abounded in 
those contrasts — not always edifying, but always 
picturesque — which mark the whole course of 
French Canadian history. Here was a throng of In- 
dians armed with bows and arrows, war-clubs, or the 
cheap guns of the trade ; some of them completely 
naked except for the feathers on their heads and the 
paint on their faces ; French bush-rangers tricked 
out with savage finery ; merchants and habitants 
in their coarse and plain attire, and the grave 
priests of St. Sulpice robed in black. Order and 
sobriety were their watchwords, but the wild gath- 
ering was beyond their control. The prohibition 
to sell brandy could rarely be enforced ; and the 
fair ended at times in a pandemonium of drunken 
frenzy. The rapacity of trade, and the license of 
savages and coureurs de hois, had completely trans- 
formed the pious settlement. 

A similar fair was established at Three Rivers, 
for the Algonquin tribes north of that place. These 
yearly markets did not fully answer the desired 
object. There was a constant tendency among 



16G3-1763.I THE FOREST TRADE. 305 

the inhabitants of Canada to form settlements above 
Montreal, in order to intercept the Indians on their 
way down, drench them with brandy, and get their 
furs from them at low rates in advance of the fair. 
Such settlements were forbidden, but not prevented. 
The audacious " squatter " defied edict and ordi- 
nance and the fury of drunken savages, and boldly 
planted himself in the path of the descending trade. 
Nor is this a matter of surprise ; for he was usually 
the secret agent of some high colonial officer, an 
intendant, the local governor, or the governor- 
general, who often used his power to enforce the 
law against others, and to violate it himself. 

This was not all; for the more youthful and 
vigorous part of the male population soon began to 
escape into the woods, and trade with the Indians 
far beyond the limits of the remotest settlements. 
Here, too, many of them were in league with the 
authorities, who denounced the abuse while secretly 
favoring the portion of it in which they themselves 
were interested. The home government, unable 
to prevent the evil, tried to regulate it. Licenses 
were issued for the forest trade.^ Their number 
was limited to twenty-five, and the privileges which 
they conferred varied at different periods. In La 
Hontan's time, each license authorized the depart- 
ure of two canoes loaded with goods. One canoe 
only was afterwards allowed, bearing three men 
with about four hundred pounds of freight. The 
licenses were sometimes sold for the profit of 
government, but many were given to widows of 

^ Ordres du Roy au sujet de la Traite du Canada, 1681. 
20 



306 TKADE AND INDUSTRY. [1665-1763 

officers and other needy persons, to the hospitals, 
or to favorites and retainers of the governor. Those 
who could not themselves use them sold them to 
merchants or voyageurs, at a price varying from a 
thousand to eighteen hundred francs. They were 
valid for a year and a half ; and each canoeman 
had a share in the profits, which, if no accident 
happened, were very large. The license system 
was several times suppressed and renewed again ; 
but, like the fair at Montreal, it failed completely 
to answer its purpose, and restrain the young 
men of Canada from a general exodus into the 
wilderness.^ 

The most characteristic features of the Canadian 
fur trade still remain to be seen. Oudiette and 
his associates were not only charged with collect- 
ing the revenue, but were also vested with an 
exclusive right of transporting all the beaver-skins 
of the colony to France. On their part they were 
compelled to receive all beaver-skins brought to 
their magazines ; and, after deducting the fourth 
belonging to the king, to pay for the rest at a fixed 
pTice. This price was graduated to the different 
qualities of the fur; but the average cost to the 
collectors was a little more than three francs a 
pound. The inhabitants could barter their furs 
with merchants ; but the merchants must bring 
them all to the magazines of Oudiette, who paid in 
receipts convertible into bills of exchange. He 
soon found himself burdened with such a mass 

1 Before pie is one of these licenses, signed by the goTernor Denon- 
rille. A condition of carrying no brandy is appended to it. 



.ot53-1763.] TROUBLE AND CHANGE. 307 

of beaver-sldns, that the market was completely 
glutted. The French hatters refused to take them 
all ; and for the part which they consented to take, 
they paid chiefly in hats, which Oudiette was not 
allowed to sell in France, but only in the French 
West Indies, where few people wanted them. An 
anlucky fashion of small hats diminished the con- 
sumption of fur and increased his embarrassments, 
as did also a practice common among the hatters 
of mixing rabbit fur with the beaver. In his 
extremity he bethought him of setting up a hat 
factory for himself under the name of a certain 
licensed hatter, thinking thereby to alarm his cus- 
tomers into buying his stock.^ The other hatters 
rose in wrath and petitioned the minister. The 
new factory was suppressed, and Oudiette soon 
became bankrupt. Another company of farmers 
of the revenue took his place with similar results. 
The action of the law of supply and demand was 
completely arrested by the peremptory edict which, 
with a view to the prosperity of the colony and 
the profit of the king, required the company to 
take every beaver-skin offered. 

All Canada, thinking itself sure of its price, 
rushed into the beaver trade, and the accumulation 
of unsalable furs became more and more suffo- 
cating. The farmers of the revenue could not 
meet their engagements. Their bills of exchange 
were unpaid, and Canada was filled with distress 
and consternation. In 1700, a change of system 
was ordered. The monopoly of exporting beaver 

' M^moire touchant le Commerce du Canada, 1687. 



308 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-17G3 

was placed in the hands of a company formed of 
the chief inhabitants of Canada. Some or them 
hesitated to take the risk ; but the government 
was not to be trifled with, and the minister, Pon- 
chartrain, wrote in terms so peremptory, and so 
menacing to the recusants, that, in the words of a 
writer of the time, he " shut everybody's mouth." 
About a hundred and fifty merchants accordingly 
subscribed to the stock of the new company, and 
immediately petitioned the king for a ship and a 
loan of seven hundred thousand francs. They 
were required to take o:ff the hands of the farmers 
of the revenue an accumulation of more than six 
hundred thousand pounds of beaver, for which, 
however, they were to pay but half its usual price. 
The market of France absolutely refused it, and 
the directors of the new company saw no better 
course than to burn three-fourths of the trouble- 
some and perishable commodity ; nor was this the 
first resort to this strange expedient. One cannot 
repress a feeling of indignation at the fate of the 
interesting and unfortunate animals uselessly sacri- 
ficed to a false economic system. In order to rid 
themselves of what remained, the directors begged 
the king to issue a decree, requiring all hatters to 
put at least three ounces of genuine beaver-fur 
into each hat. 

All was in vain. The affairs of the company fell 
into a confusion which was aggravated by the bad 
faith of some of its chief members. In 1707, it was 
succeeded by another company, to whose magazines 
every habitant or merchant was ordered to bring 



1663-1763.] THE COUREURS DE BOIS. 309 

every beaver-skin in his possession within forty- 
eight hours ; and the company, like its predeces- 
sors, was required to receive it, and pay for it in 
written promises. Again the market was over- 
whelmed with a surfeit of beaver. Again the bills 
of exchange were unpaid, and all was confusion 
and distress. Among the memorials and petitions 
to which this state of things gave birth, there is 
one conspicuous by the presence of good sense 
and the absence of self-interest. The writer pro- 
poses that there should be no more monopoly, but 
that everybody should be free to buy beaver-sldns 
and send them to France, subject only to a mod- 
erate duty of entry. The proposal was not accepted. 
In 1721, the monopoly of exporting beaver-skins 
was given to the new West India Company ; but 
this time it was provided that the government 
should direct from time to time, according to the 
capacities of the market, the quantity of furs which 
the company should be forced to receive.^ 

Out of the beaver trade rose a huge evil, baneful 
to the growth and the morals of Canada. All that 
was most active and vigorous in the colony took 
to the woods, and escaped from the control of in- 
tendants, councils, and priests, to the savage free- 

1 On the fur trade the documents consulted are very numerous. The 
following are the most important: M^moire sur ce qui concerne le Com- 
merce da Castor et ses d^pendances, 1715 ; M€nioire eoncernant le Commerct 
is Traite entre les Franqois et lea Sauvages, 1691 ; M^moire sur le Canada 
address^ au Regent, 1715; M^moire sur les Affaires de Canada dans leiir 
Estat present, 1696 ; M€moire des Negotiants de la Rochelle qui font Commerce 
en Canada sur la Proposition de ne plus recevoir les Castors et d'engager les 
Habitants a la Cidture des Terres et Pesche de la Molue, 1696 ; M€moire du 
Sr. Riverin sur la Traite et la Ferme du Castor, 1696 ; M€moire touckant U 
Commerce du Canada, 1687, etc. 



310 TRADE AND INDUSTKf. [1663- 17ba 

dom of the wilderness. Not only were the possible 
profits great ; but, in the pursuit of them, there was 
a fascinating element of adventure and danger. 
The bush-rangers or coureurs de hois were to the 
king an object of horror. They defeated his plans 
for the increase of the population, and shocked his 
native instinct of discipline and order. Edict after 
edict was directed against them; and more than 
once the colony presented the extraordinary spec- 
tacle of the greater part of its young men 
turned into forest outlaws. But severity was dan- 
gerous. The offenders might be driven over to 
the English, or converted into a lawless banditti, 
renegades of civUization and the faith. Therefore, 
clemency alternated with rigor, and declarations 
of amnesty with edicts of proscription. Neither 
threats nor blandishments were of much avail. 
We hear of seigniories abandoned ; farms turning 
again into forests ; wives and children left in desti- 
tution. The exodus of the coureurs de hois would 
take, at times, the character of an organized move- 
ment. The famous Du Lhut is said to have made 
a general combination of the young men of Canada 
to follow him into the woods. Their plan was to 
be absent four years, in order that the edicts against 
them might have time to relent. The intendant 
Duchesneau reported that eight hundred men out 
of a population of less than ten thousand souls had 
vanished from sight in the immensity of a bound- 
less wilderness. Whereupon the king ordered that 
any person going into the woods without a license 
should be whipped and branded for the first offence, 



ibti3-1763.J THE COUiiEUltS DE BOlS. 311 

and sent lor life to the galleys for the second.' 
The order was more easily given than enforced. 
" I must not conceal from you, monseigneur," again 
writes Duchesneau, " that the disobedience of the 
coureurs de hois has reached such a point that 
everybody boldly contravenes the king's interdic- 
tions ; that there is no longer any concealment ; 
and that parties are collected with astonishing in- 
solence to go and trade in the Indian country. I 
have done all in my power to prevent this evil, 
which may cause the ruin of the colony. I have 
enacted ordinances against the coureurs de hois ; 
against the merchants who furnish them with goods , 
against the gentlemen and others who harbor them, 
and even against those who have any knowledge 
of them, and will not inform the local judges. All 
has been in vain ; inasmuch as some of the most 
considerable famihes are interested with them, and 
the governor lets them go on and even shares 
their profits."^ "You are aware, monseigneur," 
writes Denonville, some years later, " that the 
coureurs de hois are a great evil, but you are not 
aware how great this evil is. It deprives the 
country of its effective men ; makes them indocile, 
debauched, and incapable of discipline, and turns 
them into pretended nobles, wearing the sword 
and decked out with lace, both they and their 
relations, who all affect to be gentlemen and ladies. 
As for cultivating the soil, they will not hear of it. 

1 Le Roy a Frontenac, 80 Avril, 1681. On another occasion, it was 
ordered that any person thus offending should suffer death. 

2 N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 131. 



312 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-1763. 

This, along with the scattered condition of the 
settlements, causes their children to be as unruly 
as Indians, being brought up in the same manner. 
Not that there are not some very good people here, 
but they are in a minority." ^ In another despatch 
he enlarges on their vagabond and lawless ways, 
their indifference to marriage, and the mischief 
caused by their example j describes how, on their 
return from the woods, they swagger like lords, 
spend aU their gains in dress and drunken revelry, 
and despise the peasants, whose daughters they 
will not deign to marry, though they are peasants 
themselves. 

It was a curious scene when a party of coureurs 
de hois returned from their rovings. Montreal 
was their harboring place, and they conducted 
themselves much like the crew of a man-of-war 
paid off after a long voyage. As long as their 
beaver-skins lasted, they set no bounds to their 
riot. Every house in the place, we are told, was 
turned into a drinking shop. The new-comers 
were bedizened with a strange mixture of French 
and Indian finery ; while some of them, with in- 
stincts more thoroughly savage, stalked about the 
streets as naked as a Pottawattamie or a Sioux. 
The clamor of tongues was prodigious, and gam- 
bling and drinldng filled the day and the night. 
When at last they were sober again, they sought 
absolution for their sins; nor could the priests 
venture to bear too hard on their unruly penitents, 

1 Denonville, M^moire sur I'Estat des Affaires de Ic Nouvelle France. 



1668-1763.] THE COUREURS DE BOIS. 313 

lest they should break wholly with the church and 
dispense thenceforth with her sacraments. 

Under such leaders as Du Lhut, the coureurs de 
hois built forts of palisades at various points 
throughout the West and Northwest. They had 
a post of this sort at Detroit some time before its 
permanent settlement, as well as others on Lake 
Superior and in the valley of the Mississippi. They 
occupied them as long as it suited their purposes, 
and then abandoned them to the next comer. 
Michillimackinac was, however, their chief resort ; 
and thence they would set out, two or three 
together, to roam for hundreds of miles through 
the endless meshwork of interlocking lakes and 
rivers which seams the northern wilderness. 

No wonder that a year or two of bush-ranging 
spoiled them for civilization. Though not a very 
valuable member of society, and though a thorn 
in the side of princes and rulers, the coureur de 
hois had his uses, at least from an artistic point of 
view ; and his strange figure, sometimes brutaUy 
savage, but oftener marked with the hues of a 
dare-devil courage, and a reckless, thoughtless 
gayety, will always be joined to the memories of 
that grand world of woods which the nineteenth 
century is fast civilizing out of existence. At least, 
he is picturesque, and with his red-skin companion 
serves to animate forest scenery. Perhaps he could 
sometimes feel, without knowing that he felt them, 
the charms of the savage nature that had adopted 
him. Rude as he was, her voice may not always 
have been meaningless for one who knew her 



314 TRADE AND INDUSTRY. [1663-1763. 

haunts so well ; deep recesses where, veiled m 
fohage, some wild shy rivulet steals w^ith timid 
music through breathless caves of verdure ; gulfs 
where feathered crags rise hke castle walls, where 
the noonday sun pierces with keen rays athwart 
the torrent, and the mossed arms of fallen pines 
cast wavering shadows on the illumined foam ; 
pools of liquid crystal turned emei'ald in the re- 
flected green of impending woods ; rocks on whose 
rugged front the gleam of sunlit waters dances in 
quivering hght ; ancient trees hurled headlong by 
the storm to dam the raging stream with their 
forlorn and savage ruin; or the stern depths of 
immemorial forests, dim and silent as a cavern, 
columned with innumerable trunks, each like an 
Atlas upholding its world of leaves, and sweating 
perpetual moisture down its dark and channelled 
rind ; some strong in youth, some grisly with 
decrepit age, nightmares of strange distortion, 
gnarled and knotted with wens and goitres; 
roots intertwined beneath like serpents petrified 
in an agony of contorted strife ; green and 
glistening mosses carpeting the rough ground, 
manthng the rocks, turning pulpy stumps to 
mounds of verdure, and swathing fallen trunks 
as bent in the impotence of rottenness, they lie 
outstretched over knoll and hollow, like moulder- 
ing reptiles of the primeval world, while around, 
and on and through them, springs the young 
growth that battens on their decay, — the forest 
devouring its own dead. Or, to turn from its 
funereal shade tc the light and life of the open 



1663-1763.] LETTER OF CARHEIL. 315 

woodland, the sheen of sparlding lakes, and moimt- 
ains basking in the glory of the summer noon, 
flecked by the shadows of passing clouds that sail 
on snowy wings across the transparent azure. 

Yet it would be false coloring to paint the 
half -savage coureur de hois as a romantic lover 
of nature. He hked the woods because they 
emancipated him from restraint. He liked the 
lounging ease of the camp-fire, and the license of 
Indian villages. His life has a dark and ugly side, 
which is nowhere drawn more strongly than in a 
letter written by the Jesuit Carheil to the intend- 
ant Champigny. It was at a time when some of 
the outlying forest posts, originally either missions 
or transient stations of coureur s de hois, had re- 
ceived regular garrisons. Carheil writes from 
Michillimackinac, and describes the state of things 
aroimd him like one whom long familiarity with 
them had stripped of every illusion. 

But here, for the present, we pause ; for the 
father touches on other matters than the coureurs 
de hois, and we reserve him and his letter for the 
next chapter. 



CHAPTER XVm. 

1663-1702. 

THE MISSIONS. THE BRANDY QUESTION. 

Thk Jebttits and the Iroquois. — Mission Villages. — Michilli- 
MACKINAC. — Father Carheil. — Temperance. — Brandt anii 
THE Indians. — Strong Measures. — Disputes. — License and 
Prohibition. — Views of the King. — Trade and the Jesuits. 

For a year or two after De Tracy had chastised 
the Mohawks, and humbled the other Iroquois 
nations, all was rose color on the side of that 
dreaded confederacy. The Jesuits, defiant as usual 
of hardship and death, had begun their ruined 
missions anew. Bruyas took the Mission of the 
Martyrs among the Mohawks ; Milet, that of Saint 
Francis Xavier, among the Oneidas ; Lamberville, 
that of Saint John the Baptist among the Onon- 
dagas; Carheil, that of Saint Joseph among the 
Cayugas; and RafEeix and Julien Garnier shared 
between them the three missions of the Senecas. 
The Iroquois, after their punishment, were in a 
frame of mind so hopeful, that the fathers imagined 
for a moment that they were all on the point of 
accepting the faith. This was a consummation 
earnestly to be wished, not only from a religious, 
but also from a political point of view. The 



1663-1702.) THE JESUITS AND THE IROQUOIS. 3] 7 

complete conversion of the Iroquois meant their 
estrangement from the heretic Enghsh and Dutch, 
and their firm alliance with the French. It meant 
safety for Canada, and it ensured for her the fur 
trade of the interior freed from Enghsh rivalry. 
Hence the importance of these missions, and hence 
their double character. While the Jesuit toiled 
to convert his savage hosts, he watched them at 
the same time with the eye of a shrewd pohtical 
agent ; reported at Quebec the result of his obser- 
vations, and by every means in his power sought 
to alienate them from England, and attach them 
to France. 

Their simple conversion, by placing them wholly 
under his influence, would have outweighed in 
political value all other agencies combined; but 
the flattering hopes of the earlier years soon van- 
ished. Some petty successes against other tribes 
so elated the Iroquois, that they ceased to care for 
French alliance or French priests. Then a few 
petty reverses would dash their spirits, and dispose 
them again to listen to Jesuit counsels. Every 
success of a war-party was a loss to the faith, and 
every reverse was a gain. Meanwhile a more re- 
pulsive or a more critical existence than that of a 
Jesuit father in an Iroquois town is scarcely con- 
ceivable. The torture of prisoners turned into a 
horrible festivity for the whole tribe ; foul and 
crazy orgies in which, as the priest thought, the 
powers of darkness took a special delight ; drunken 
riots, the work of Dutch brandy, when he was 
forced to seek refuge from death in his chapel, — 



318 THE MISSIONS. BRANDT QUESTION. ,"1663-1702 

a sa;nctuary which superstitious fear withheld the 
Indians from violating ; these, and a thousand dis- 
gusts and miseries, filled the record of his days, 
and he bore them all in patience. Not only were 
the early Canadian Jesuits men of an intense 
religious zeal, but they were also men who lived 
not for themselves but for their order. Their 
faults were many and great, but the grandeur of 
their self-devotion towers conspicuous over all. 

At Caughnawaga, near Montreal, may still be 
seen the remnants of a mission of converted Iro- 
quois, whom the Jesuits induced to leave the 
temptations of their native towns and settle here, 
under the wing of the church. They served as a 
bulwark against the English, and sometimes did 
good service in time of war. At Sillery, near 
Quebec, a band of Abenaquis, escaping from the 
neighborhood of the English towards the close of 
Philip's War, formed another mission of similar 
character. The Sulpitians had a third at the foot of 
the mountain of Montreal, where two massive stone 
towers of the fortified Indian town are standing to 
this day. All these converted savages, as well as 
those of Lorette and other missions far and near, 
were used as allies in war, and launched in scalping 
parties against the border settlements of New 
England. 

Not only the Sulpitians, but also the seminary 
priests of Quebec, the RecoUets, and even the Ca- 
puchins, had missions more or less important, and 
more or less permanent; but the Jesuits stood 
always in the van of religious and poHtical propa- 



1663-1702.1 MICHILLIMACKINAC. 319 

gandism ; and all the forest tribes felt their influence, 
from Acadia and Maine to the plains beyond the 
Mississippi. Next in importance to their Iroquois 
missions were those among the Algonquins of the 
northern lakes. Here was the grand domain of 
the beaver trade ; and the chief woes of the mis- 
sionary sprang not from the Indians, but from his 
own countrymen. Beaver-skins had produced an 
effect akin to that of gold in our own day, and the 
deepest recesses of the wilderness were invaded by 
eager seekers after gain. The focus of the evil 
was at Father Marquette's old mission of MichiUi- 
mackinac. First, year after year came a riotous 
invasion of coureurs de hois, and then a garrison 
followed to crown the mischief. Discipline was 
very weak at these advanced posts, and, to eke 
out their pay, the soldiers were allowed to trade j 
brandy, whether permitted or interdicted, being 
the chief article of barter. Father Etienne Carheil 
was driven almost to despair ; and he wrote to the 
intendant, his fast friend and former pupil, the long 
letter already mentioned. " Our missions," he 
says, " are reduced to such extremity that we can 
no longer maintain them against the infinity of 
disorder, brutality, violence, injustice, impiety, 
impurity, insolence, scorn, and insult, which the 
deplorable and infamous traffic in brandy has 
spread universally among the Indians of these 
parts. ... In the despair in which we are plunged, 
nothing remains for us but to abandon them to the 
brandy sellers as a domain of drunkenness and 
debauchery." 



320 THE MISSIONS. BRANDY QUESTION. [1663-1702. 

He complains bitterly of the officers m command 
of the fortj who, he says, far from repressmg dis- 
orders, encourage them by their example, and are 
even worse than their subordinates, " insomuch that 
all our Indian villages are so many taverns for 
drunkenness and Sodoms for iniquity, which we 
shall be forced to leave to the just wrath and ven- 
geance of God." He insists that the garrisons are 
entirely useless, as they have only four occupa- 
tions : first, to keep open liquor shops for crowds 
of drunken Indians ; secondly, to roam from place 
to place, carrying goods and brandy under the 
orders of the commandant, who shares their profits ; 
thirdly, to gamble day and night ; fourthly, to " turn 
the fort into a place which I am ashamed to call 
by its right name ; " and he describes, with a curious 
amplitude of detail, the swarms of Indian girls who 
are hired to make it their resort. " Such, mon- 
seigneur, are the only employments of the soldiers 
maintained here so many years. If this can be 
called doing the king service, I admit that such 
service is done for him here now, and has always 
been done for him here ; but I never saw any other 
done in my life." He further declares that the 
commandants oppose and malign the missionaries, 
while of the presents which the king sends up 
the country for distribution to the Indians, they, the 
Indians, get nothing but a httle tobacco, and the 
officer keeps the rest for himself.* 

1 Of the officers in command at Michillimackinac while Carheil was 
there, he partially excepts La Durantaye from his strictures, but bears 
rery hard on La Motte-Cadillac, who hated the Jesuits and was hated by 
them in turn. La Motte, on his part, writes that " the missionaries wish 



1663-1702.1 MICHILLIMACKINAC. 321 

From the misconduct of officers and soldiers, he 
passes to tliat of the coureui^s de hois and hcensed 
traders ; and here he is equally severe. He dilates 
on the evils which result from permitting the colo- 
nists to go to the Indians instead of requiring the 
Indians to come to the settlements. "It serves 
only to rob the country of all its young men, weaken 
families, deprive wives of their husbands, sisters of 
their brothers, and parents of their children ; expose 
the voyagers to a hundred dangers of body and 
soul; involve them in a multitude of expenses, 
some necessary, some useless, and some criminal ; 
accustom them to do no work, and at last disgust 
them with it for ever ; make them live in constant 
idleness, unlit them completely for any trade, and 
render them useless to themselves, their families, 
and the public. But it is less as regards the body 
than as regards the soul, that this traffic of the 
French among the savages is infinitely hurtful. It 
carries them far away from churches, separates 
them from priests and nuns, and severs them from 
all instruction, all exercise of religion, and all 
spiritual aid. It sends them into places wild and 
almost inaccessible, through a thousand perils by 
land and water, to carry on by base, abject, and 
shameful means a trade which would much better 
be carried on at Montreal." 

But in the complete transfer of the trade to 
Montreal, he sees insuperable difficulties, and he 

to be masters wherever they are, and cannot tolerate anybody above 
themselves." N. T. Colonial Does., IX. 587. For much more emphatic 
expressions of his views concerning them, see two letters from him, trana- 
Itttcd in Sheldon's Early History of Michigan. 

21 



822 THE MISSIONS. BEANDY QUESTION. I166S-170'2 

proceeds to suggest, as the last and best resort, that 
garrisons and officers should be withdrawn, and 
licenses abolished ; that discreet and virtuous per- 
sons should be chosen to take charge of all the 
trade of the upper country; that these persons 
should be in perfect sympathy and correspondence 
with the Jesuits ; and that the trade should be 
carried on at the missions of the Jesuits and in 
their presence.^ 

This letter brings us again face to face with the 
brandy question, of which we have seen something 
already in the quarrel between Avaugour and the 
bishop. In the summer of 1648, there was held 
at the mission of SUlery a temperance meeting; 
the first in all probability on this continent. The 
drum beat after mass, and the Indians gathered at 
the summons. Then an Algonquin chief, a zealous 
convert of the Jesuits, proclaimed to the crowd a 
late edict of the governor imposing penalties for 
drunkenness, and, in his own name and that of 
the other chiefs, exhorted them to abstinence, 
declaring that aU drunkards should be handed over 
to the French for punishment. Father Jerome 
Lalemant looked on delighted. " It was," he says, 
"the finest public act of jurisdiction exercised 
among the Indians since I have been in this coun- 
try. From the beginning of the world they have 
all thought themselves as great lords, che one aa 
the other, and never before submitted to their 
chiefs any further than they chose to do so."^ 

1 Lettre du Pere Etienne Carheil de la Compagnie de J€sus a I'lntendant 
Chatnpigny, Michillhnackinac, 30 Aout, 1702 (Archives Nationales)- 
- Lalemant, ReL, 1648, p. 43. 



1663-1702.1 BRANDY AND THE INDIANS. 323 

There was great need of reform ; for a demon 
of drunkenness seemed to possess these unhappy 
tribes. Nevertheless, with all their rage for brandy, 
they sometimes showed in regard to it a self-con- 
trol quite admirable in its way. When at a fair, 
a council, or a friendly visit, their entertainers 
regaled them with rations of the coveted liquor, 
so prudently measured out that they could not be 
the worse for it, they would unite their several por- 
tions in a common stock, wliich they would theii 
divide among a few of their number, thus enabling 
them to attain that complete intoxication which, in 
their view, was the true end of all drinking. The 
objects of this singular benevolence were expected 
to requite it in kind on some future occasion. 

A drunken Indian with weapons within reach, 
was very dangerous, and all prudent persons kept 
out of his way. This greatly pleased him; for, 
seeing everybody run before him, he fancied him- 
self a great chief, and howled and swung his toma- 
hawk with redoubled fury. If, as often happened, 
he maimed or murdered some wretch not nimble 
enough to escape, his countrymen absolved him 
from all guilt, and blamed only the brandy. Hence, 
if an Indian wished to take a safe revenge on some 
personal enemy, he would pretend to be drunk ; 
and, not only murders but other crimes were often 
committed by false claimants to the bacchanalian 
privilege. 

In the eyes of the missionaries, brandy was a 
fiend with all crimes and miseries in his train ; 
and, in fact, nothing earthly could better deserve 



824 THE MISSIONS. BRANDT QUESTION. [1663-1702 

the epithet infernal than an Indian town in 
the height of a drunken debauch. The orgies 
never ceased till the bottom of the barrel was 
reached. Then came repentance, despair, waihng, 
and bitter invective against the white men, the 
cause of all the woe. In the name of the public 
good, of humanity, and above all of religion, the 
bishop and the Jesuits denounced the fatal traffic. 

Their case was a strong one ; but so w^as the 
case of their opponents. There was real and immi- 
nent danger that the thirsty savages, if refused 
brandy by the French, would seek it from the 
Dutch and English of New York. It was the most 
potent lure and the most killing bait. Wherever 
it was found, thither the Indians and their beaver- 
skins were sure to go, and the interests of the fur 
trade, vital to the colony, were bound up with it. 
Nor was this all, for the merchants and the civil 
powers insisted that rehgion and the saving of 
souls were bound up with it no less ; since, to repel 
the Indians from the CathoHc French, and attract 
them to the heretic English, was to turn them from 
ways of grace to ways of perdition.^ The argu- 
ment, no doubt, was dashed largely with hypocrisy 
in those who used it ; but it was one which the 
priests were greatly perplexed to answer. 

In former days, when Canada was not yet trans- 
formed from a mission to a colony, the Jesuits 
entered with a high hand on the work of reform. 

I " Ce commerce est absolument necessaire pour attirer lea sauvages 
dans les colonies fran9oises, et par ce moyen leur donner les premiferea 
teintures de la foy." Mdmoire de Colbert, joint a sa lettre a Ditchesneau du 
24 Mai, 1678. 



ti563-l 702.1 STRONG MEASURES. 325 

It fared hard with the culprit caught in the act 
of selling brandy to Indians. They led him, after 
the sermon, to the door of the church ; where, kneel- 
ing on the pavement, partially stript and bearing 
in his hand the penitential torch, he underwent a 
vigorous flagellation, laid on by Father Le Mercier 
himself, after the fashion formerly practised in the 
case of refractory school-boys.' Bishop Laval not 
only discharged against the offenders volleys of 
wholesale excommunication, but he made of the 
oJffence a " reserved case ; " that is, a case in which 
the power of granting absolution was reserved to 
himself alone. This produced great commotion, and 
a violent conflict between religious scruples and a 
passion for gain. The bishop and the Jesuits stood 
inflexible ; while their opponents added bitterness 
to the quarrel by charging them with permitting 
certain favored persons to sell brandy, unpunished, 
and even covertly selling it themselves.^ 

1 M^moire de Dumesnil, 1671. 

' Lettre de Charles Auhert de la Chesnaye, 24 Oct., 1693. After speak- 
ing of the excessive rigor of the bislaop, he adds : " L'on dit, et il est vrai, 
que dans ces temps si facheux, sous pretexte de pauvrete dans les families, 
certaines gens avoient permission d'en traiter, je crois toujours avec la 
reserve de ne pas enivrer." Dumesnil, M€moire de 1671, says that Laval 
excommunicated all brandy-sellers, "k I'exception, neanmoins, de quel- 
ques particuliers qu'il voulait favoriser." He says further that the bishop 
and the Jesuit Eagueneau had a clerk whom they employed at 500 francs 
a year tc trade with the Indians, paying them in liquors for their furs ; 
and that for a time the ecclesiastics had this trade to themselves, their 
aeverities having deterred most others from venturing into it. La Salle, 
Memoire de 1678, declares that, " lis (les J^suites) refusent I'absolution a 
ceux qui ne veulent pas promettre de n'en plus vendre, et s'ils meurent en 
cet etat, ils les privent de la sepulture ecclesiastique : au contraire, ils so 
permettent a eux mesmes sans aucune difficulte' ce mesnie trafic, quoyqua 
toute sortfl de trafic soit interdite a tous les eccle'siastiques par les ordon- 
nances du Roy et par une bulle expresse du Pape." I give those asser- 
tions as ' find them, and for what they are worth. 



.S26 THE MISSIONS. BRANDY QUESTION. [1663-1702 

Appeal was made to the king, who, with his 
Jesuit confessor, guardian of his conscience on one 
side, and Colbert, guardian of his worldly interests 
on the other, stood in some perplexity. The case 
was referred to the fathers of the Sorbonne, and 
they, after solemn discussion, pronounced the sell- 
ing of brandy to Indians a mortal sin.^ It was 
next referred to an assembly of the chief mer- 
chants and inhabitants of Canada, held under the 
eye of the governor, intendant, and council, in the 
Chateau St. Louis. Each was directed to state his 
views in writing. The great majority were for 
unrestricted trade in brandy ; a few were for a 
limited and guarded trade; and two or three de 
clared for prohibition.^ Decrees of prohibition 
were passed from time to time, but they were un- 
availing. They were revoked, renewed, and re- 
voked again. They were, in fact, worse than 
useless ; for their chief effect was to turn traders 
and coureurs de hois into troops of audacious con- 
trabandists. Attempts were made to limit the 
brandy trade to the settlements, and exclude it 
from the forest country, where its regulation was 
im^DOSsible ; but these attempts, like the others, 
were of little avail. It is worthy of notice that, 
when brandy was forbidden everywhere else, it 
was permitted in the trade of Tadoussac, carried 
on for the profit of government.^ 

1 Ddtbiration de la Sorbonne sur la Traite des Botssons, 8 Mars, 1675. 

2 Proces-verbal de I'AssembUe tenue au Chateau de St. Louis de Quebec, te 
28 Oct., 1676, et jours suivants. 

3 Lettre de Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye, 24 Oct., 1693. In the course 
of the quarrel a severe law passed by the General Court of MassacUu- 



1663-1702.] VIEWS OF THE KING. 327 

In spite of the Sorbonne, in spite of Perc La 
Chaise, and of the Archbishop of Paris, whom he 
also consulted, the king was never at heart a pro- 
liibitionist.^ His Canadian revenue was drawn 
from the fur trade ; and the singular argument of 
the partisans of brandy, that its attractions were 
needed to keep the Indians from contact with 
heresy, served admirably to salve his conscience. 
Bigot as he was, he distrusted the Bishop of 
Quebec, the great champion of the anti-Hquor 
movement. His own letters, as well as those of 
his minister, prove that he saw or thought that he 
saw motives for the crusade very different from 
those inscribed on its banners. He wrote to Saint- 
YaUier, Laval's successor in the bishopric, that the 
brandy trade was very useful to the kingdom of 
France ; that it should be regulated, but not pre- 
vented ; that the consciences of his subjects must 
not be disturbed by denunciations of it as a sin ; 
and that "it is well that you {the bishop) should 
take care that the zeal of the ecclesiastics is not 
excited by personal interests and passions." ^ Per- 
haps he alludes to the spirit of encroachment and 
domination which he and his minister in secret 
instructions to their officers often impute to the 
bishop and the clergy, or perhaps he may have in 
mind other accusations which had reached him 

setts against the sale of liquors to Indians was several times urged as an 
example to be imitated. A copy of it was sent to the minister, and is 
still preserved in the Archives of the Marine and Colonies. 

I See, among other evidence, M€moire sur la Traite des BoisaoM, 

1678. 

'■^ Le Roy a Saint-Vallier, 7 Avril, 1691 



328 THE MISSIONS. BRANDY QUESTION. 11663-1702 

from time to time during many years, and of which 
the following from the pen of the most noted of 
Canadian governors will serve as an example. 
Count Frontenac declares that the Jesuits greatly 
exaggerate the disorders caused by brandy, and 
that they easily convince persons "who do not 
know the interested motives which have led them 
to harp continually on this string for more than 
forty years. . . . They have long wished to have 
the fur trade entirely to themselves, and to keep 
out of sight the trade which they have always 
carried on in the woods, and which they are carry- 
ing on there now." ^ 

Trade of the Jesuits. — As I have observed in a former 
volume, the charge against the Jesuits of trading in beaver-skina 
dates from the beginning of the colony. In the private journal of 
Father Jerome Lalemant, their superior, occurs the following 
curious passage, under date of November, 1645: '■^ Pour la traite 
des castors. Le 15 de Nov. le bruit estant qu'on s'en alloit icy 
publier la defense qui auoit est6 publi6e aux Trois Riuieres que 
pas vn n'eut a traiter auec les sauuages, le P. Vimont demanda a 
Mons. des Chastelets coramis general si nous serious de pire con- 
dition soubs eux que soubs Messieurs de la Compagnie. La con- 
clusion fut que non et que ceJa iroit pour nous a V ordinaire, mais que 
nous le fissions doucement." Journal des Jesuites. Two years after, 
on the request of Lalemant, the governor Montmagny, and hia 
destined successor Aillebout, gave the Jesuits a certificate to the 
effect that " les p^res de la compagnie de Jesus sont innocents de 
la calomnie qui leur a 6t6 imputee, et ce quails en onifait a ete pour 
le Men de la com. nunaute et pour un bon sujet." This leaves it to be 
inferred that they actually traded, though with good intentions. 
In 1664, in reply to similar "calumnies," the Jesuits made by 
proxy a declaration before the council, stating, "que les dita 
Reverends Peres Jesuites n'ont fait jamais ancune profession de 
vendre et n'ont jamais rien vendu, mais seulement qne les marchan- 
dises qu'ils donnent aux particuliers ne sont que pour avoir leun 

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 29 Oct., 1676. 



1663-1702.J TRADE OF THE JESUITS. 329 

necessiies." This is an admission in a thin disguise. The word 
necessites is of very elastic interpretation. In a memoir of Talon, 
1667, he mentions, " la traite de pelleteries qu'on assure qu'ils (Jes 
Jesuites) font aux Outaouacks et au Cap de la Madeleine; ce que je 
ne sais pas de science certaine." 

That which Talon did not know with certainty is made reason- 
ably clear for us by a hne in the private journal of Father Le 
Mercier, who writes under date of 17 August, 1665, " Le Pere 
Fremin remonte superieur au Cap de la Magdeleine, ou le temporal 
est en bon estat. Comme il est dellvre de tout soin d'aucune traite, 
il doit s'appUquer a I'instruction tant des Montagnets que dea 
Algonquius." Father Charles Albanel was charged, under Frd- 
min, with the affairs of the mission, including doubtless the tem- 
poral interests, to the prosperity of which Father Le Merciel 
alludes, and the cares of trade from which Father Fremin was 
delivered. Caveher de la Salle declared in 1678, " Le pere Arba- 
nelle {Albanel) jesuite a traite au Cap (de la Madeleine') pour 700 
pistoles de peaux d'orignaux et de castors; luy mesme me I'a dit 
en 1667. II vend le pain, le vin, le bled, le lard, et il tient maga- 
zin au Cap aussi bien que le frere Joseph a Quebec. Ce frere gagne 
oOO pour 100 sur tons les peuples. lis (les Jesuites) out bati leui 
college en partie de leur traite et en partie de remprunt." La 
Salle further says that Fremin, being reported to have made 
enormous profits, " ce pere repondit au gouverneur {qui lui en avail 
fait des plaintes) par un billet que luy a conserve, que c'estoit une 
calomuie que ce grand gain pretendu; puisque tout ce qui se passoit 
par ses mains ne pouvoit produire par an que quatre miile de reve- 
uant bon, tons frais faits, sans comprendre les gages des domes- 
tiques." La Salle gives also many other particulars, especially 
relating to MichUlimackinac, where, as he says, the Jesuits had a 
large stock of beaver-skins. According to Peronne Dumesnil, 
Memoir e de 1671, the Jesuits had at that time more than 20,000 
francs a year, partly from trade and partly from charitable contri- 
butions of their friends in France. 

The king repeatedly forbade the Jesuits and other ecclesiastics 
in Canada to carry on trade. On one occasion he threatened 
strong measures should they continue to disobey him. Le Roi a 
P'l-ontenac, 28 Avril, 1677. In the same year the minister wrote to 
the intendant Duchesneau : " Vous ne sauriez apporter trop de 
precautions pour abohr entierement la coustume que les Ecclesias- 
tiques seculiers et reguhers avaient pris de traitter ou de faire 
traitter leurs valets," 18 Avril, 1677. 

The Jesuits entered also into other branches of trade and in« 



330 THE MISSIOITS. BRANDY QUESTION. (1663-1702. 

dustry with a vigor aud address which the inhabitants of Canada 
might have emulated with advantage. They were successful 
fishers of eels. In 1646, their eel-pots at Sillery are said to have 
yielded no less than forty thousand eels, some of which they sold 
at the modest price of thirty sous a hundred. Ferland, Notes sur 
les Registres de N. D. de Quebec, 82. The members of the order 
were exempted from payment of duties, and in 1674 they were 
specially empowered to construct mills, including sugar-mills, and 
keep slaves, apprentices, and hired servants. Droit Canadien, 180. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

1663-1763. 
PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 

Church and State. — The Bishop and the King. — The Kino 
AND THE Cures. — The New Bishop. — The Canadian CuKi;. — 
Ecclesiastical Rule. — Saint- Vallier and Denonville. — 
Clerical Rigor. — Jesuit and Sulpitian. — Courcellb and 
Chatelain. — The Recollets. — Heresy and Witchcraft. — 
Canadian Nuns. — Jeanne Le Ber. — Education. — The Sem- 
inary. — Saint Joachim. — Miracles of Saint Anne. — Cana- 
dian Schools. 

When Laval and the Jesuits procured the recall 
of Mezy, they achieved a seeming triumph ; yet it 
was but a defeat in disguise. While ordering home 
the obnoxious governor, the king and Colbert 
made a practical assertion of their power too 
strong to be resisted. A vice-regal officer, a 
governor, an intendant, and a regiment of soldiers, 
were silent but convincing proofs that the mission 
days of Canada were over, and the dream of a 
theocracy dispelled for ever. The ecclesiastics 
read the signs of the times, and for a while seemed 
to accept the situation. 

The king on his part, in vindicating the civil 
power, had shown a studious regard to the sensi- 
bilities of the bishop and his alHes. The lieu- 



332 PEIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1665-70. 

tenant-general Tracy, a zealous devotee, and the 
intendant Talon, who at least professed to be one, 
were not men to offend the clerical party need- 
lessly. In the choice of Courcelle, the governor, 
a little less caution had been shown. His chief 
business was to fight the Iroquois, for which he 
was weU fitted, but he presently showed signs of a 
willingness to fight the Jesuits also. The colonists 
liked him for his hvely and impulsive speech ; but 
the priests were of a different mind, and so, too, 
was his colleague Talon, a prudent person who 
studied the amenities of life and knew how to 
pursue his ends with temper and moderation. On 
the subject of the clergy he and the governor 
substantially agreed, but the ebullitions of the one 
and the smooth discretion of the other were mut- 
ually repugnant to both. Talon complained of 
his colleague's impetuosity ; and Colbert directed 
him to use his best efforts to keep Courcelle within 
bounds and prevent him from pubhcly finding 
fault with the bishop and the Jesuits.^ Next we 
find the minister writing to Courcelle himself to 
soothe his ruffled temper, and enjoining him to act 
discreetly, " because," said Colbert, " as the colony 
grows the king's authority will grow with it, and 
the authority of the priests will be brought back 
in time within lawful bounds." '^ 

Meanwhile, Talon had been ordered to observe 
carefully the conduct of the bishop and the Jesuits, 
" who," says the minister, " have hitherto nomi- 
nated governors for the king, and used every 

» Colbert a Talon, 20 Fee, 1668. « Colbert a Courcelle, 19 Mai, 166» 



:665-70.1 COUKCELLE AND THE JESUITS. 333 

Tneans to procure the recall of those chosen with- 
out their participation;^ filled offices with their 
adherents, and tolerated no secular priests except 
those of one mind with them." ^ Talon, therefore, 
under the veil of a reverent courtesy, sharply 
watched them. They paid courtesy with courtesy, 
and the intendant wrote home to his master that 
he saw nothing amiss in them. He quickly changed 
his mind. " I should have had less trouble and 
more praise," he writes in the next year, " if I 
had been willing to leave the power of the church 
where I found it." ^ " It is easy," he says again, 
" to incur the ill-will of the Jesuits if one does not 
accept all their opinions and abandon one's self to 
their direction even in temporal matters ; for their 
encroachments extend to affairs of police, which 
concern only the civil magistrate ; " and he rec- 
ommends that one or two of them be sent home 
as disturbers of the peace.* They, on their part, 
changed attitude towards both him and the gov- 
ernor. One of them. Father Bardy, less discreet 
than the rest, is said to have preached a sermon 
against them at Quebec, in which he likened them 
to a pair of toadstools springing up in a night, 
adding that a good remedy would soon be found, 
and that Courcelle would have to run home like 
other governors before him.^ 

Tracy escaped clerical attacks. He was ex- 

1 Instruction au Sieur Talon. 

2 M^moire pour M. de Tracy. 

3 Talon au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1666. 
* Talon, M€moire de 1667. 

5 La Salle, M^moire de 1678 This sermon was preached on the 12tih 
of March, 1667. 



334 PEIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1665-1700 

tremely careful not to provoke them ; and one oi 
his first acts was to restore to the council the 
bishop's adherents, whom Mezy had expelled.' 
And if, on the one hand, he was too pious to 
quarrel with the bishop, so, on the other, the 
bishop was too prudent to invite collision with a 
man of his rank and influence. 

After all, the dispute between the civil and 
ecclesiastical powers was not fundamental. Each 
had need of the other. Both rested on authority, 
and they differed only as to the boundary lines of 
their respective shares in it. Yet the dispute of 
boundaries was a serious one, and it remained a 
source of bitterness for many years. The king, 
though rigidly Catholic, was not yet sunk in the 
slough of bigotry into which Maintenon and the 
Jesuits succeeded at last in plunging him. He had 
conceived a distrust of Laval, and his jealousy of 
his royal authority disposed him to listen to the 
anti-clerical counsels of his minister. How need- 
ful they both thought it to prune the exuberant 
growth of clerical power, and how cautiously they 
set themselves to do so, their letters attest again 
and again. " The bishop," writes Colbert, " as- 
sumes a domination far beyond that of other 
bishops throughout the Christian world, and par- 
ticularly in the kingdom of France." ^ " It is the 
will of his Majesty that you confine him and the 
Jesuits within just bounds, and let none of them 

1 A curious account of his relations with Laval is given in a letter of 
La Motte-Cadillac, 28 September, 1694. 
^ Colbert a Duchesneau, 1 Mai, 1677. 



1665-1700.1 THE RECOLLETS. 335 

Overstep these bounds in any manner whatsoever. 
Consider this as a matter of the greatest import- 
ance, and one to which you cannot give too much 
attention."^ "But," the prudent minister else- 
where writes, " it is of the greatest consequence 
that the bishop and the Jesuits do not perceive 
that the intendant blames their conduct." ^ 

It was to the same intendant that Colbert wrote, 
"it is necessary to diminish as much as possible 
the excessive number of priests, monks, and nuns, 
in Canada." Yet in the very next year, and on 
the advice of Talon, he himself sent four more 
to the colony. His motive was plain. He meant 
that they should serve as a counterpoise to the 
Jesuits.^ They were mendicant friars, belonging 
to the branch of the Franciscans known as the 
RecoUets ; and they were supposed to be free from 
the ambition for the aggrandizement of their order 
which was imputed, and with reason, to the Jesuits. 
Whether the Recollets were free from it or not, no 
danger was to be feared from them ; for Laval and 
the Jesuits were sure to oppose them, and they 
would need the support of the government too 
much to set themselves in opposition to it. " The 
more Recollets we have," says Talon, '• the better 
will the too firmly rooted authority of the others 
be balanced."* 

While Louis XIV. tried to confine the priests to 

1 Colbert a Duchesneau, 28 Avril, 1677. 

2 Instruction pour M. Bouteroue, 1668. 

' M€moire succinct des principaux points des intentions du Roy tur U pajfi 
ie Canada, 18 Mai, 1669. 

< Talon au Ministre, 10 Oct., 1670, 



336 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1665-170a 

their ecclesiastical functions, he was at the same 
time, whether from religion, policy, or both com- 
bined, very liberal to the Canadian church, of- 
which, indeed, he was the main-stay. In the 
yearly estimate of "ordinary charges" of the 
colony, the church holds the most prominent place; 
and the appropriations for religious purposes often 
exceed all the rest together. Thus, in 1667, out 
of a total of 36,360 francs, 28,000 are assigned to 
church uses.^ The amount fluctuated, but was 
always relatively large. The Canadian cures were 
paid in great part by the king, who for many 
years gave eight thousand francs annually towards 
their support. Such was the poverty of the 
country that, though in 1685 there were only 
twenty-five cures,^ each costing about five hundred 
francs a year, the tithes utterly failed to meet the 
expense. As late as 1700, the intendant declared 
that Canada without the king's help could not 
maintain more than eight or nine cures. Louis 
XIV. winced under these steady demands, and 
reminded the bishop that more than four thousand 
cures in France lived on less than two hundred 
francs a year.^ " You say," he wrote to the in- 
tendant, " that it is impossible for a Canadian 
cure to live on five hundred francs. Then you 

1 Of this, 6,000 francs were giren to the Jesuits, 6,000 to the TJrsulines, 
9,000 to the cathedral, 4,000 to the seminary, and 3,000 to the Hotel-Dieu. 
Etat de d^pense, etc., 1677. The rest went to pay civil officers and garri- 
sons. In 1682, the amount for clmrch uses was only 12,000 francs. In 
1687 it was 13,500. In 1689, it rose to 34,000, including Acadia. 

2 Increased soon after to thirty -six by Saint- Vallier, Laval's successor, 
' M^moire a Duchesneccu, 15 Mai, 1678 ; Le Roy a Duchesneau, 11 Juin, 

1680. 



U)G5-1700.j THE KING AND THE CHURCH. 337 

must do the impossible to accomplish my intentions, 
which are always that the cures should live on the 
tithes alone." ^ Yet the head of the church still 
hegged for money, and the king still paid it. " We 
are in the midst of a costly war," wrote the minis- 
ter to the bishop, "yet in consequence of your 
urgency the gifts to ecclesiastics will be continued 
as before." ^ And they did continue. More than 
half a century later, the king was still making 
them, and during the last years of the colony he 
gave twenty thousand francs annually to support 
Canadian cures. ^ 

The maintenance of cures was but a part of 
Ills bounty. He endowed the bishopric with the 
revenues of two French abbeys, to which he after- 
wards added a third. The vast tracts of land 
which Laval had acquired were freed from feudal 
burdens, and emigrants were sent to them by the 
government in such numbers that, in 1667, the 
bishop's seigniory of Beaupre and Orleans con- 
tained more than a fourth of the entire population 
of Canada.* He had emerged from his condition 
of apostohc poverty to find himself the richest 
land-owner in the colony. 

If by favors like these the king expected to 
lead the ecclesiastics into compliance with his 

• Le Roy a Duckesneau, 30 Avril, 1681. 
2 Le Minislre a I'Eveque, 8 Mai, 1694. 
8 Bougainville, M€moire, 1757. 

* Entire population, 4,312 ; Beaupre and Orleans, 1,185. Recensement 
de 1667. Laval, it will be remembered, afterwards gave his lands to the 
seminary of Quebec. He previously exchanged the island of Orleans 
with the Sieur Berthelot for the island of Jesus. Berthelot gave him a 
large sum of money in addition. 

22 



3o(5 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1G65-1700 

wishes, he was doomed to disappointment. The 
system of movable cures, by which the bishop 
Hke a military chief could compel each member of 
his clerical army to come and go at his bidding, 
was from the first repugnant to Louis XIV. On 
the other hand, the bishop clung to it with his 
usual tenacity. Colbert denounced it as contrary 
to the laws of the kingdom.-^ "His Majesty has 
reason to believe," he writes, " that the chief 
source of the difficulty which the bishop makes on 
this point is his wish to preserve a greater author- 
ity over the cures." ^ The inflexible prelate, whose 
heart was bound up in the system he had estab- 
lished, opposed evasion and delay to each ex- 
pression of the royal will ; and even a royal edict 
failed to produce the desired effect. In the height 
of the dispute, Laval went to court, and, on the 
ground of failing health, asked for a successor in 
the bishopric. The king readily granted his prayer. 
The successor was appointed ; but when Laval pre- 
pared to embark again for Canada, he was given to 
understand that he was to remain in France. In 
vain he promised to make no trouble -, ^ and it was 
not till after an absence of four years that he was 
permitted to return, no longer as its chief, to his 
beloved Canadian church.* 

1 Ze Ministre a Duchesneau, 15 Mai, 1678. 

2 Instruction a M. de Meules, 1682. 

3 Laval au Pere la Chaise, 1687. This forms part of a curious corre- 
spondence printed in the Foyer Canadian for 1866, from originals in the 
Archeveche of Quebec. 

4 From a m€moire of 18 Feb., 1685 (Archives de Versailles) it is plain 
that the court, in giving a successor to Laval, thought that it had ended 
the vexed question of movable cur^s. 



IG65-1 700.1 THE NEW BISHOP. 339 

Meanwhile Saint- Yallier, the new bishop, had 
raised a new tempest. He attacked that organiza- 
tion of the seminary of Quebec by which Laval 
had endeavored to unite the secular priests of 
Canada into an attached and obedient family, with 
the bishop as its head and the seminary as its 
home, a plan of which the system of movable 
cures was an essential part. The Canadian priests, 
devoted to Laval, met the innovations of Saint- 
Vallier with an opposition which seemed only to 
confirm his purpose. Laval, old and worn with 
toil and asceticism, was driven almost to despair. 
The seminary of Quebec was the cherished work 
of his life, and, to his thinking, the citadel of the 
Canadian church ; and now he beheld it battered 
and breached before his eyes. His successor, in 
fact, was trying to place the church of Canada on 
the footing of the church of France. The conflict 
lasted for years, with the rancor that marks the 
quarrels of non-combatants of both sexes. " He " 
{ Saint- Vallier), s£iys one of his opponents, "has 
made himself contemptible to almost everybody, 
and particularly odious to the priests born in 
Canada ; for there is between them and him a 
mutual antipathy difficult to overcome." ^ He is 
described by the same writer as a person " without 
reflection and judgment, extreme in all things, 
secret and artful, passionate when opposed, and a 
flatterer when he wishes to gain his point." This 
amiable critic adds that Saint- Vallier believes a 

1 The above is from an anonymoiis paper, written apparently in 1695 
Bsd entitled M€moire pour le Canada. 



840 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1688 

bishop to be inspired, in virtue of his office, with 
a wisdom that needs no human aid, and that what- 
ever thought comes to him in prayer is a divine 
inspiration to be carried into effect at all costs and 
in spite of all opposition. 

The new bishop, notwithstanding the tempest 
he had raised, did not fully accomplish that estab- 
lishment of the cures in their respective par- 
ishes which the king and the minister so much 
desired. The Canadian cur6 was more a missionary 
than a parish priest ; and nature as well as Bishop 
Laval threw difficulties in the way of setthng him 
quietly over his charge. 

On the Lower St. Lawrence, where it widens to 
an estuary, six leagues across, a ship from France, 
the last of the season, holds her way for Quebec, 
laden with stores and clothing, household utensils, 
goods for Indian trade, the newest court fashions, 
wine, brandy, tobacco, and the king's orders from 
Versailles. Swelling her patched and dingy sails, 
she glides through the wildness and the sohtude 
where there is nothing but her to remind you of 
the great troubled world behind and the little 
troubled world before. On the far verge of the 
ocean-like river, clouds and mountains mingle in 
dim confusion ; fresh gusts from the north dash 
waves against the ledges, sweep through the quiv- 
ering spires of stiff and stunted fir-trees, and ruffle 
the feathers of the crow, perched on the dead 
bough after his feast of mussels among the sea-weed. 
You are not so solitary as you think. A small 
birch canoe rounds the point of rocks, and it bears 



;683.| THE CANADIAN CUEfi. 341 

two men; one in an old black cassock, and tlie 
other in a buckskin coat ; both working hard at 
the paddle to keep their slender craft off the 
shingle and the breakers. The man in the cassock 
is Father Morel, aged forty-eight, the oldest coun- 
try cure in Canada, most of his brethren being in 
the vigor of youth as they had need to be. His 
parochial charge embraces a string of incipient 
parishes extending along the south shore from 
Riviere du Loup to Riviere du Sud, a distance 
reckoned at twenty-seven leagues, and his parish- 
ioners number in all three hundred and twenty- 
eight souls. He has administered spiritual conso- 
lation to the one inhabitant of Kamouraska ; visited 
the eight famihes of La Bouteillerie and the five 
families of La Combe ; and now he is on his way 
to the seigniory of St. Denis with its two houses 
and eleven souls.^ 

The father lands where a shattered eel-pot high 
and dry on the pebbles betrays the neighborhood 
of man. His servant shoulders his portable chapel, 
and follows him through the belt of firs, and the 
taller woods beyond, till the sunlight of a desolate 
clearing shines upon them. Charred trunks and 
hmbs encumber the ground ; dead trees, branch- 
less, barkless, pierced by the woodpeckers, in part 
black with fire, in part bleached by sun and frost, 
tower ghastly and wierd above the labyrinth of 
forest ruins, through which the priest and his 

1 These particulars are from the Plan g^n€ral de I'estat present des mis 
sions du Canada, fait en I'annd'e, 1683. It is a list and description of the 
parishes with the names and ages of the cure's, and other details. See 
Abeille, I. This paper was drawn up by order of Laval 



342 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1665-170Q 

follower wind their way, the cat-bird mewirg, and 
the blue-jay screaming as they pass. Now the 
golden-rod and the aster, harbingers of autumn, 
fringe with purple and yellow the edge of the older 
clearing, where wheat and maize, the settler's 
meagre harvest, are growing among the stumps. 

Wild-looking women, with sunburnt faces and 
neglected hair, run from their work to meet the 
cure ; a man or two follow with soberer steps and 
less exuberant zeal ; while half -savage children, the 
coureurs de hois of the future, bareheaded, bare- 
footed, and half -clad, come to wonder and stare. 
To set up his altar in a room of the rugged log 
cabin, say mass, hear confessions, impose penance, 
grant absolution, repeat the office of the dead over 
a grave made weeks before, baptize, perhaps, the 
last infant; marry, possibly, some pair who may 
or may not have waiied for his coming ; catechize 
as well as time and circumstance would allow the 
shy but turbulent brood of some former wedlock : 
such was the work of the parish priest in the 
remoter districts. It was seldom that his charge 
was quite so scattered, and so far extended as that 
of Father Morel ; but there were fifteen or twenty 
others whose labors were like in kind, and in some 
cases no less arduous. All summer they paddled their 
canoes from settlement to settlement ; and in winter 
they toiled on snow-shoes over the drifts; while the 
servant carried the portable chapel on his back, or 
dragged it on a sledge. Once, at least, in the year, 
the cure paid his visit to Quebec, where, under the 
maternal roof of the seminary he made his retreat 



1666- 1700.) THE CANADIAN CURIJ. 343 

of meditation and prayer, and then returned to liis 
work. He rarely had a house of his own, but 
boarded in that of the seignior or one of the habi- 
tants. Many parishes or aggregations of parishes 
had no other church than a room fitted up for the 
purpose in the house of some pious settler. In 
the larger settlements, there were churches and 
chapels of wood, thatched with straw, often ruin- 
ous, poor to the last degree, without ornaments, 
and sometimes without the sacred vessels necessary 
for the service.-^ In 1683, there were but seven 
stone churches in all the colony. The population 
was so thin and scattered that many of the settlers 
heard mass only three or four times a year, and 
some of them not so often. The sick frequently 
died without absolution, and infants without bap- 
tism. 

The splendid seK-devotion of the early Jesuit 
missions has its record ; so, too, have the unseemly 
bickerings of bishops and governors : but the 
patient toils of the missionary cure rest in the 
obscurity where the best of human virtues are 
buried from age to age. What we find set down 
concerning him is, that Louis XIV. was imable to 
see why he should not live on two hundred francs 
a year as well as a village cure by the banks of 
the Garonne. The king did not know that his 
cassock and aU his clothing cost him tmce as much 
and lasted half as long ; that he must have a canoe 
and a man to paddle it; and that when on his 

1 Saint- Vallier, Estai present de I'Eqlise et de la Colonie Frangatse, 
22 (ed. 1866). 



344 PEIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1685 

annual visit the seminary paid him five or sis 
hundred francs, partly in clothes, partly in stores, 
and partly in money, the end of the year found 
him as poor as before except only in his con- 
science. 

The Canadian priests held the manners of the 
colony under a rule as rigid as that of the Puritan 
churches of New England, but with the difference 
that in Canada a large part of the population was 
restive under their control, while some of the civU 
authorities, often with the governor at their head, 
supported the opposition. This was due, partly to 
an excess of clerical severity, and partly to the 
continued friction between the secular and eccle- 
siastical powers. It sometimes happened, however, 
that a new governor arrived, so pious that the 
clerical party felt that they could rely on him. 
Of these rare instances the principal is that of 
Denonville, who, with a wife as pious as himself, 
and a young daughter, landed at Quebec, in 1685. 
On this. Bishop Saint-Vallier, anxious to turn his 
good dispositions to the best account, addressed to 
him a series of suggestions or rather directions foi 
the guidance of his conduct, with a view to the 
spiritual profit of those over whom he was appointed 
to rule. The document was put on file, and the 
following are some of the points in it. It is di- 
vided into five different heads : " Touching feasts," 
" touching balls and dances," " touching comedies 
and other declamations," " touching dreps," " touch- 
ing irreverence in church." The governor and 
madame his wife are desired to accept no in vita- 



1685.] SAINT- VALLIER AND DENONVILLE. 345 

tious to suppers, that is to say late dinners, as 
tending to nocturnal hours and dangerous pastimes ; 
and they are further enjoined to express dissatisfac- 
tion, and refuse to come again, should any entertain- 
ment offered them be too sumptuous. " Although," 
continues the bishop under the second head of hia 
address, " balls and dances are not sinful in their 
nature, nevertheless they are so dangerous by 
reason of the circumstances that attend them, and 
the evil results that almost inevitably follow, that, 
in the opinion of Saint Francis of Sales, it should 
be said of them as physicians say of mushrooms, 
that at best they are good for nothing ; " and, after 
enlarging on their perils, he declares it to be of 
great importance to the glory of God and the 
sanctification of the colony, that the governor and 
his wife neither give such entertainments nor 
countenance them by their presence. " Neverthe- 
less," adds the mentor, " since the youth and 
vivacity of mademoiselle their daughter requires 
some diversion, it is permitted to relent somewhat, 
and indulge her in a little moderate and proper 
dancing, provided that it be solely with persons of 
her own sex, and in the presence of madame her 
mother ; but by no means in the presence of men 
or youths, since it is this mingling of sexes which 
causes the disorders that spring from balls and 
dances." Private theatricals in any form are next 
interdicted to the young lady. The bishop then 
passes to the subject of her dress, and exposes the 
abuses against which she is to be guarded. ^* The 
luxury of dress," he says, " appears in the rich and 



346 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1385 

dazzling fabrics wherein the "women auil girls oi 
Canada attire themselves, and which are far beyond 
their condition and their means ; in the excess of 
ornaments which they put on ; in the extraordinary 
head-dresses which they affect, their heads being 
uncovered and full of strange trinkets ; and in the 
immodest curls so expressly forbidden in the epis- 
tles of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, as well as by all 
the fathers and doctors of the church, and which 
God has often severely punished, as may be seen 
by the example of the unhappy Pretextata, a lady 
of high quality, who, as we learn from Saint 
Jerome, who knew her, had her hands withered, 
and died suddenly five months after, and was pre- 
cipitated into hell, as God had threatened her by 
an angel ; because, by order of her husband, she 
had curled the hair of her niece, and attired her 
after a worldly fashion." ^ 

Whether the Marquis and Marchioness Denon- 
ville profited by so apt and terrible a warning, or 
whether their patience and good-nature survived 
the episcopal onslaught, does not appear on record. 
The subject of feminine apparel received great 
attention, both from Saint-Yalher and his prede- 

1 " Temoin entr'autres Texemple de la malheureuse Pretextate, dame 
de grande condition, laquelle au rapport de S. Jerome, dont elle e'toit 
connue, eut les mains dessechees et cinq mois apr^s mourut subitement et 
fut precipitee en enfer, ainsi que Dieu Ten avoit menace'e par un Ange 
pour avoir par le commandement de son marl fris^ et habille mondaine- 
ment ea nifece." Divers points a repr^senter a Mr. le Gouvernewr et a 
Madame la Gouvernante,sign€ Jean, ^vesque de Quebec, (Registre de I'EvecM 
de Quebec.) The bishop on another occasion holds up the sad fate of Pre- 
textata as a warning to Canadian mothers ; but in the present case he 
slightly changes the incidents to make the story more applicable to the 
governor and his wife. 



1663-1700. 1 CLERICAL SEVERITY. 347 

cesser, each of whom issued a number of pastoral 
mandates concerning it. Their severest denuncia- 
tions were aimed at low-necked dresses, which they 
regarded as favorite devices of the enemy for the 
snaring of souls ; and they also used strong lan- 
guage against certain knots of ribbons called fon- 
tanges, with which the belles of Quebec adorned 
their heads. Laval launches strenuous invectives 
against " the luxury and vanity of women and 
girls, who, forgetting the promises of their bap- 
tism, decorate themselves with the pomp of Satan, 
whom they have so solemnly renounced ; and, in 
their wish to please the eyes of men, make them- 
selves the instruments and the captives of the 
fiend." ' 

In the journal of the superior of the Jesuits we 
find, under date of February 4, 1667, a record 
of the first ball in Canada, along with the pious 
wish, " God grant that nothing further come of 
it." Nevertheless more balls were not long in 
following; and, worse yet, sundry comedies were 
enacted under no less distinguished patronage than 
that of Frontenac, the governor. Laval denounced 
them vigorously, the Jesuit Dablon attacked them 
in a violent sermon ; and such excitement followed 
that the affair was brought before the royal coirn- 
cil, which declined to interfere.^ This flurry, how- 

1 Mandement contre le luxe et la vanity des femmes et des fiUes, 1682. 
{Registres de l'Evech€ de Quebec.) A still more vigorous denunciation 
is contained in Ordonnance contre les vicis de luxe et d'impuret€, 1690. This 
was followed in the next year by a stringent list of rules called R^glement 
pour la conduite des Jideles de ce diocese. 

2 Arrets du 24 et 28 juin par lesquels cette affaire {des comedies) est renvo^^ 
& 8a M<ijett€, 1681. (1) (Registre du Consei' Souverain.) 



348 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1663-1700 

ever, was nothing to the storm raised ten or twelve 
years later by other dramatic aggressions, an account 
of which will appear in the sequel of this volume 

The morals of families were watched with unre- 
lenting vigilance. Frontenac writes in a mood 
unusuahy temperate, "they {the priests) are fuU 
of virtue and piety, and if their zeal were less 
vehement and more moderate they would perhaps 
succeed better in their efforts for the conversion 
of souls ; but they often use means so extraor- 
dinary, and in France so unusual, that they re- 
pel most people instead of persuading them. I 
sometimes tell them my views frankly and as 
gently as I can, as I know the murmurs that their 
conduct excites, and often receive complaints of 
the constraint under which they place consciences. 
This is above aU the case with the ecclesiastics at 
Montreal, where there is a cure from Franche 
Comte who wants to establish a sort of inquisition 
worse than that of Spain, and aU out of an excess 
of zeal."^ 

It was this cure, no doubt, of whom La Hon- 
^in complains. That unsanctified young officer 
was quartered at Montreal, in the house of one 
of the inhabitants. "During a part of the 
winter I was hunting with the Algonquins; the 
rest of it I spent here very disagreeably. One 
can neither go on a pleasure party, nor play a 
game of cards, nor visit the ladies, without the 
cure knowing it and preaching about it publicly 
from his pulpit. The priests excommunicate mas- 

1 Frontenac au Ministre, 20 Oct., 1691. 



x653-170n.l LA MOTTE AND THE PRIESTS. 349 

qiieraders, and even go in search of them to pull 
oft" their masks and overwhelm them with abuse. 
They watch more closely over the women and 
girls than their husbands and fathers. They pro- 
hibit and burn all books but books of devotion. I 
cannot think of this tyranny without cursing the 
indiscreet zeal of the cure of this town. He came 
to the house where I hved, and, finding some 
books on my table, presently pounced on the 
romance of Petronius, which I valued more than 
my life because it was not mutilated. He tore out 
almost all the leaves, so that if my host had not 
restrained me when I came in and saw the miser- 
able wreck, I should have run after this rampant 
shepherd and torn out every hair of his beard." ^ 

La Motte-Cadillac, the founder of Detroit, seems 
to have had equal difficulty in keeping his tem- 
per. " Neither men of honor nor men of parts 
are endured in Canada ; nobody can live here but 
simpletons and slaves of the ecclesiastical domina- 
tion. The count [Frontenac] would not have so 
many troublesome affairs on his hands if he had 
not abolished a Jericho in the shape of a house 
built by messieurs of the seminary of Montreal, to 
shut up, as they said, girls who caused scandal ; if 
he had allowed them to take officers and soldiers to 
go into houses at midnight and carry off women 
from their husbands and whip them till the blood 
flowed because they had been at a ball or worn a 
mask ; if he had said nothing against the cures 

1 La Hontan, I. 60 (ed. 1709). Other editions contain the same story 
m different words. 



350 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. (1663-1700 

who went the rounds with the soldiers and com- 
pelled women and girls to shut themselves up in 
their houses at nine o'clock of summer evenings ; 
if he had forbidden the wearing of lace, and made 
no objection to the refusal of the communion to 
women of quality because they wore a fontange ; 
if he had not opposed excommunications flung about 
without sense or reason ; if, I say, the count had 
been of this way of thinking he would have stood 
as a nonpareil, and have been put very soon on 
the hst of saints, for saint-making is cheap in this 
country."^ 

WhUe the Sulpitians were thus rigorous at 
Montreal, the bishop and his Jesuit allies were 
scarcely less so at Quebec. There was little good- 
will between them and the Sulpitians, and some of 
the sharpest charges against the followers of Loyola 
are brought by their brother priests at Montreal. 
The Sulpitian AUet writes : " The Jesuits hold such 
domination over the people of this country that 
they go into the houses and see every thing that 
passes there. They then tell what they have 
learned to each other at their meetings, and on 
this information they govern their policy. The 
Jesuit, Father Ragueneau, used to go every day 
down to the Lower Town, where the merchants 
live, to find out all that was going on in their 
families ; and he often made people get up from 
table to confess to him." Allet goes on to say 
that Father Chatelain also went continually to the 
Lower Town with the same object, and that some 

1 Zo Motte-Cadillac a , 28 Sept., 1694. 



1663-17U0.1 JESUIT ACTIVITY. 351 

of the inhabitants complained of him to Gour- 
celle, the governor. One day Courcelle saw the 
Jesuit, who was old and somewhat infirm, slowly 
walking by the ChS,teau, cane in hand, on his 
usual errand, on which he sent a sergeant after 
him to request that he would not go so often to 
the Lower Town, as the people were annoyed by 
the frequency of his visits. The father replied in 
wrath, " Go and tell Monsieur de Courcelle that T 
have been there ever since he was governor, and 
that I shall go there after he has ceased to be 
governor ; " and he kept on his way as before. 
Courcelle reported his answer to the superior, Le 
Mercier, and demanded to have him sent home as 
a punishment; but the superior effected a com- 
promise. On the following Thursday, after mass 
in the cathedral, he invited Courcelle into the 
sacristy, where Father Chatelain was awaiting 
them; and here, at Le Mercier's order, the old 
priest begged pardon of the offended governor on 
his knees.^ 

The Jesuits derived great power from the con- 
fessional ; and, if their accusers are to be beheved, 
they employed unusual means to make it effective. 
Cavelier de la Salle says : " They will confess nobody 
till he tells his name, and no servant till he tells 
the name of his master. When a crime is con- 
fessed, they insist on knowing the name of the 
accomplice, as well as all the circumstances, with 

» M^moire d'Allet. The author was at one time secretary to Abb^ 
Quflus. The paper is printed in the Morale pratique des J€suites. Thd 
above is one of many curious statements which it contains. 



352 PKIESTS AND PEOPLE. |l(iG3 1700. 

the greatest particularity. Father Chatelain es- 
pecially never fails to do this. They enter as it 
were by force into the secrets of famihes, and thus 
make themselves formidable ; for what cannot be 
done by a clever man devoted to his work, who 
knows all the secrets of every family ; above all 
when he permits himself to tell them when it is 
for his interest to do so ? " ^ 

The association of women and girls known as 
the Congregation of the Holy Family, which was 
formed under Jesuit auspices, and which met every 
Thursday with closed doors in the cathedral, is said 
to have been very useful to the fathers in their 
social investigations.^ The members are affirmed 
to have been under a vow to tell each other every 
good or evil deed they knew of every person of 
their acquaintance ; so that this pious gossip be- 
came a copious source of information to those in a 
position to draw upon it. In Talon's time the Con- 
gregation of the Holy Family caused such com- 
motion in Quebec that he asked the council to 
appoint a commission to inquire into its proceed- 
ings. He was touching dangerous ground. The 
affair was presently hushed, and the apphcation 
cancelled on the register of the council.^ 

The Jesuits had long exercised solely the func- 
tion of confessors in the colony, and a number of 

» La Salle, M^moire, 1678. 

2 See Discovery of the Great West, 105. 

8 Representation faite au conseil au sujet de certaines assemblies de Jemmes 
ouJiUes sous le nam de la Sainte Famille, 1667. {Registre du Conseil Souverain.) 
The paper is cancelled by lines drawn over it ; and the following minute, 
duly attested, is appended to it : " Raye du consentement de M. Talon " 



1063-1700.] THE RECOLLETS. 35.^ 

curious anecdotes are on record showing the re- 
luctance with which they admitted the secular 
priests, and above all the Kecollets, to share in it. 
The RecoUets, of whom a considerable number had 
arrived from time to time, were on excellent terms 
with the civil powers, and were popular with the 
colonists ; but with the bishop and the Jesuits they 
were not in favor, and one or two sharp collisions 
took place. The bishop was naturally annoyed 
when, while he was trying to persuade the king 
that a cure needed at least six hundred francs a 
year, these mendicant friars came forward with an 
offer to serve the parishes for nothing ; nor was he, 
it is likely, better pleased when, having asked the 
hospital nuns eight hundred francs annually for 
two masses a day in their chapel, the Recollets 
underbid him, and offered to say the masses for 
three hundred.^ They, on their part, complain 
bitterly of the bishop, who, they say, would gladly 
have ordered them out of the colony, but being 
unable to do this, tried to shut them up in their 
convent, and prevent them from officiating as 
priests among the people. " We have as little 
liberty," says the Recollet writer, " as if we w^ere 
in a country of heretics." He adds that the in- 
habitants ask earnestly for the ministrations of 
the friars, but that the bishop replies with in- 
vectives and calumnies against the order, and that 



1 " Mon dit sieur I'evesque leur fait payer {aux hospitalitres) 800/. par 
an pour deux messes qu'il leur fait dire par ses Seminaristes que le» 
Recollets leurs voisins leur offrent pour 300/." La Barre au Ministre, 
1682. 

23 



354 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. 11603-1700, 

when the Recollets absolve a penitent he ofteii 
annuls the absolution.^ 

In one respect this Canadian church militant 
achieved a complete success. Heresy was scoured 
out of the colony. When Maintenon and her 
ghostly prompters overcame the better nature of 
the king, and wrought on his bigotry and his 
vanity to launch him into the dragonnades ; when 
violence and lust bore the crucifix into thousands 
of Huguenot homes, and the land reeked with 
nameless infamies ; when churches rang with Te 
Deiims, and the heart of France withered in an- 
guish ] when; in short, this hideous triumph of the 
faith was won, the royal tool of priestly ferocity 
sent orders that heresy shoidd be treated in Canada 
as it had been treated in France.^ The orders 
were needless. The pious Denonville rephes, 
" Praised be God, there is not a heretic here." 
He adds that a few abjured last year, and that he 
should be very glad if the king would make them 
a present. The Jesuits, he further says, go every 
day on board the ships in the harbor to look after 
the new converts from France.^ Now and then at 
a later day a real or suspected Jansenist found his 
way to Canada, and sometimes an esprit fort, like 

1 M€moire instructif contenant la conduite des PP. Recollets de Paris en 
leurs missions de Canada, 1684. This paper, of which only a fragment is 
preserved, was written in connection with a dispute of the Recollets with 
the bishop who opposed their attempt to establish a church in Quebec. 

2 Memoire du Roy a Denonville, 31 Mai, 1686. The king here orders 
the imprisonment of heretics who refuse to abjure, or the quartering of 
soldiers on them. What this meant the history of the dragonnades will 
show. 

- 3 Denonville au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1686. 



}663-1700.] THE NUNS. 355 

La Hontan, came over with the troops ; but on the 
whole a community more free from positive hetero- 
doxy perhaps never existed on earth. This ex- 
emption cost no bloodshed. What it did cost we 
may better judge hereafter. 

If Canada escaped the dragonnades, so also she 
escaped another infliction from which a neighboring 
colony suffered deplorably. Her peace was never 
much troubled by witches. They were held to 
exist, it is true ; but they wrought no panic. 
Mother Mary of the Incarnation reports on one 
occasion the discovery of a magician in the per- 
son of a converted Huguenot miller who, being 
refused in marriage by a girl of Quebec, be- 
witched her, and filled the house where she hved 
with demons, which the bishop tried in vain to 
exorcise. The miller was thrown into prison, 
and the girl sent to the Hotel-Dieu, where not a 
demon dared enter. The infernal crew took their 
revenge by creating a severe influenza among the 
citizens.^ 

If there are no Canadian names on the calendar 
of saints, it is not because in by-ways and obscure 
places Canada had not virtues worthy of canoniza- 
tion. Not alone her male martyrs and female 
devotees, whose merits have found a chronicle and 
a recognition ; not the fantastic devotion of Madame 
d'AiUebout, who, lest she should not suffer en: ugh, 
took to herself a vicious and refractory servant 
girl, as an exercise of patience ; and not certainly 
the mediaeval pietism of Jeanne Le Ber, the ven- 

' Marie de I'lncarnation, T^ltre de — Sept., 1661. 



356 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. , 11062-1714 

erated recluse of Montreal. There are others q\iite 
as worthy of honor, whose names have died from 
memory. It is difficult to conceive a self-abnega- 
tion more complete than that of the hospital nuns of 
Quebec and Montreal. In the almost total absence 
of trained and skilled physicians, the burden of the 
sick and wounded fell upon them. Of the two com- 
munities, that of Montreal was the more wretch- 
edly destitute, while that of Quebec was exposed, 
perhaps, to greater dangers. Nearly every ship 
from France brought some form of infection, and 
all infection found its way to the H6tel-Dieu of 
Quebec. The nuns died, but they never complained. 
Removed from the arena of ecclesiastical strife, too 
busy for the morbidness of the cloister, too much 
absorbed in practical benevolence to become the 
prey of illusions, they and their sister community 
were models of that benign and tender charity of 
which the Roman Catholic Church is so rich in 
examples. Nor should the Ursulines and the nuns 
of the Congregation be forgotten among those 
who, in another field of labor, havg toiled patiently 
according to their light. 

Mademoiselle Jeanne Le Ber belonged to none 
of these sisterhoods. She was the favorite daughter 
of the chief merchant of Montreal, the same who, 
with the help of his money, got himseK ennobled. 
She seems to have been a girl of a fine and sensitive 
nature ; ardent, affectionate, and extremely sus- 
ceptible to religious impressions. Religion at last 
gained absolute sway over her. Nothing could 
appease her longings or content the demands of 



•,962-1714.] JEANNE LE BER. 357 

her excited conscience but an entire consecration 
of herself to heaven. Constituted as she was, the 
resolution must have cost her an agony of mental 
conflict. Her story is a strange, and, as many will 
think, a very sad one. She renounced her suitors, 
and mshed to renounce her inheritance ; but her 
spiritual directors, too far-sighted to permit such 
a sacrifice, persuaded her to hold fast to her claims, 
and content herself with what they called " poverty 
of heart." Her mother died, and her father, left 
Avith a family of young cliildren, greatly needed 
her help ; but she refused to leave her chamber 
where she had immured herself. Here she re- 
mained ten years, seeing nobody but her confessor 
and the girl who brought her food. Once only she 
emerged, and this was when her brother lay dead 
in the adjacent room, killed in a fight with the 
English. She suddenly appeared before her aston- 
ished sisters, stood for a moment in silent prayer 
by the body, and then vanished without uttering a 
word. " Such," says her modern biographer, " was 
the sublimity of her virtue and the grandeur of 
her soul." Not content with this domestic seclu- 
sion, she caused a cell to be made behind the altar 
in the newly built church of the Congregation, 
and here we will permit ourselves to cast a stolen 
glance a/, her through the narrow opening through 
which food was passed in to her. Her bed, a pile 
of straw which she never moved, lest it should 
become too soft, was so placed that her head could 
touch the partition, that alone separated it from 
the Host on the altar. Here she lay wrapped in 



358 PKIESTS AND PEOPLE. 1 1662-1714 

a garment of coarse gray serge, worn. Mattered, 
and unwashed. An old blanket, a stool, a spinning- 
wheel, a belt and shirt of haircloth, a scourge, and 
a pair of shoes made by herself of the husks of 
Indian-corn, appear to have formed the sum of 
her furniture and her wardrobe. Her employ- 
ments were spinning and working embroidery for 
churches. She remained in this voluntary prison 
about twenty years ; and the nun who brought her 
food testifies that she never omitted a mortification 
or a prayer, though commonly in a state of pro- 
found depression, and what her biographer calls 
" complete spiritual aridity." 

When her mother died, she had refused to set, 
her ; and, long after, no prayer of her dying father 
could draw her from her cell. " In the person of 
this modest virgin," writes her reverend eulogist, 
" we see, with astonishment, the love of God 
triumphant over earthly affection for parents, and 
a complete victory of faith over reason and of 
grace over nature." 

In 1711, Canada was threatened with an attack 
by the English; and she gave the nuns of the 
Congregation an image of the Virgin on which she 
had written a prayer to protect their granary from 
the invaders. Other persons, anxious for a similar 
protection,, sent her images to write upon; but 
she declined the request. One of the disappointed 
applicants then stole the inscribed image from the 
granary of the Congregation, intending to place it 
on his own when the danger drew near. The 
Enghsh, however, did not come, their fleet haying 



1662-1714.] JEANNE LE BER. 359 

sLiJBfered a ruinous shipwreck ascribed to the prayers 
of Jeanne Le Ber. " It was," writes the Sulpitian 
Belmont, ". the greatest miracle that ever happened 
since the days of Moses." Nor was this the only 
miracle of which she was the occasion. She her- 
self declared that once when she had broken her 
epinning-wheel, an angel came and mended it for 
her. Angels also assisted in her embroidery, " no 
doubt," says Mother Juchereau, " taking great 
pleasure in the society of this angelic creature." 
In the church where she had secluded herself, an 
image of the Virgin continued after her death to 
heal the lame and cure the sick.^ 

Though she rarely permitted herself to speak, 
yet some oracular utterance of the sainted recluse 
would now and then escape to the outer world. 
One of these was to the effect that teaching poor 
girls to read, unless they wanted to be nuns, was 
robbing them of their time. Nor was she far 
wrong, for in Canada there was very little to read 
except formulas of devotion and lives of saints. 
The dangerous innovation of a printing-press had 
not invaded the colony,^ and the first Canadian 
newspaper dates from the British conquest. 

All education was controlled by priests or nuns. 
The ablest teachers in Canada were the Jesuits. 
Their college of Quebec was three years older than 

1 Faillon, L' Heroine chr€tienne du Canada, ou Vie de Mile. Le Ber. This 
ie a most elaborate and eulogistic life of the recluse. A shorter account 
of her will be found in Juchereau, Hotd-Dieu. She died in 1714, at the 
age of fifty-two. 

2 A printing-press was afterwards brought to Canada, but was sooo 
sent back again. 



S60 PEIESTS AND PEOPLE. ri663-176a 

Harvard. We hear at an early date of public 
disputations by the pupils, after the pattern of 
those tournaments of barren logic which preceded 
the reign of inductive reason in Europe, and of 
which the archetype is to be found in the scholastic 
duels of the Sorbonne. The boys were sometimes 
permitted to act certain approved dramatic pieces 
of a religious character, like the Sage Vision- 
naire. On one occasion they were allowed to play 
the Cid of Corneille, which, though remarkable as 
a literary work, contained nothing threatening to 
orthodoxy. They were taught a little Latin, a 
little rhetoric, and a httle logic; but against all 
that might rouse the faculties to independent action, 
the Canadian schools prudently closed their doors. 
There was then no rival population, of a different 
origin and a different faith, to compel competition 
in the race of intelligence and knowledge. The 
church stood sole mistress of the field. Under the 
old regime the real object of education in Canada 
was a religious and, in far less degree, a political 
one. The true purpose of the schools was : first, 
to make priests ; and, secondly, to make obedient 
servants of the church and the king. All the rest 
was extraneous and of slight account. In regard 
to this matter, the king and the bishop were of 
one mind. "As I have been informed," Louis 
XIV writes to Laval, " of your continued care to 
hold the people in their duty towards God and 
towards me by the good education you give or 
cause to be given to the young, I write this letter 



1668-1763.1 THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL. 361 

to express my satisfaction with conduct so salutary, 
and to exhort you to persevere in it." ^ 

The bishop did not fail to persevere. The school 
for boys attached to his seminary became the most 
important educational institution in Canada. It 
was regulated by thirty-four rules, " in honor of 
the thirty-four years which Jesus lived on earth." 
The qualities commended to the boys as those 
which they should labor diligently to acquire were, 
" humility, obedience, purity, meekness, modesty, 
simplicity, chastity, charity, and an ardent love of 
Jesus and his Holy Mother." ^ Here is a goodly 
roll of Christian virtues. What is chiefly noticeable 
in it is, that truth is allowed no place. That manlj 
but unaccommodating virtue was not, it seems, 
thought important in forming the mind of youth. 
Humility and obedience lead the list, for in unques- 
tioning submission to the spiritual director lay the 
guaranty of all other merits. 

We have seen already that, besides this seminary 
for boys, Laval estabhshed another for educating 
the humbler colonists. It was a sort of farm-school, 
though besides farming various mechanical trades 
were also taught in it. It was well adapted to 
the wants of a great majority of Canadians, whose 
tendencies were any thing but bookish ; but here, 
as elsewhere, the real object was religious. It 
enabled the church to extend her influence over 
classes which the ordinary schools could not reach. 
Besides manual training, the pupils were taught to 

1 Le Roy a Laval, 9 Avril, 1667 (extract in Faillon). 

2 Ancien r€qlement du Petit S^minaire de Quebec, see A^eilU Vlll., no. 8^ 



362 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1668-1763. 

read and write ; and for a time a certain number of 
them received some instruction in Latin. When, 
in 1686, Saint-YaUier visited the school, he found 
in all tliirty-one boys under the charge of two 
priests ; but the number was afterwards greatly 
reduced, and the place served, as it still serves, 
chiefly as a retreat during vacations for the priests 
and puj)ils of the seminary of Quebec. A spot 
better suited for such a purpose cannot be con- 
ceived. 

From the vast meadows of the parish of St. 
Joachim, that here border the St. Lawrence, there 
rises like an island a low flat hill, hedged round 
with forests hke the tonsured head of a monk. It 
was here that Laval planted his school. Across 
the meadows, a mile or more distant, towers the 
mountain promontory of Cape Tourmente. You 
may climb its woody steeps, and from the top, 
waist-deep in blueberry-bushes, survey, from Ka- 
mouraska to Quebec, the grand Canadian world 
outstretched below ; or mount the neighboring 
heights of St. Anne, where, athwart the gaunt 
arms of ancient pines, the river lies shimmering in 
summer haze, the cottages of the habitants are strung 
like beads of a rosary along the meadows of Beau- 
pre, the shores of Orleans bask in warm light, and 
far on the horizon the rock of Quebec rests like a 
faint gray cloud; or traverse the forest tiU the 
roar of the torrent guides you to the rocky solitude 
where it holds its savage revels. High on the 
cliffs above, young birch-trees stand smiling in the 
morning sun ; while in the abyss beneath the snowy 



1663-1763.] SAINT ANNE. 363 

waters: plunge from depth to depth, and, half way 
down, the slender hare-bell hangs from its mossy 
nook, quivering in the steady thunder of the 
cataract. Game on the river ; trout in lakes, 
brooks, and pools ; wild fruits and flowers on 
meadows and mountains, — a thousand resources 
of honest and wholesome recreation here wait the 
student emancipated from books, but not parted 
for a moment from the pious influence that hangs 
about the old walls embosomed in the woods of 
St. Joachim. Around on plains and hills stand 
the dwellings of a peaceful peasantry, as different 
from the restless population of the neighboring- 
states as the denizens of some Norman or Breton 
village. 

Above all, do not fail to make your pilgrimage 
to the shrine of St. Anne. You may see her 
chapel four or five miles away, nestled under the 
heights of the Petit Cap. Here, when AiUebout 
was governor, he began with his own hands the 
pious work, and a habitant of Beaupre, Louis 
Guimont, sorely afflicted with rheumatism, came 
grinning with pain to lay three stones in the 
foundation, in honor probably of Saint Anne, 
Saint Joachim, and their daughter, the Virgin. In- 
stantly he was cured. It was but the beginning of 
a long course of miracles continued more than two 
eenturies, and continuing still. Their fame spread 
far and wide. The devotion to Saint Anne became 
a distinguishing feature of Canadian Catholicity, till 
at the present day at least thirteen parishes bear 
her name. But of all her shrines none can match 



364 PKIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1663-176a 

the fame of St. Anne du Petit Cap. Crowds 
flocked thither on the week of her festival, and 
marvellous cures were wrought unceasingly, as 
the sticks and crutches hanging on the walls and 
columns still attest. Sometimes the whole shore 
was covered with the wigwams of Indian converts 
who had paddled their birch canoes from the 
fartliest wilds of Canada. The more fervent 
among them would crawl on their knees from the 
shore to the altar. And, in our own day, every 
summer a far greater concourse of pilgrims, not 
in paint and feathers, but in cloth and millinery, 
and not in canoes, but in steamboats, bring their 
offerings and their vows to the " Bonne Sainte 
Anne." ^ 

To return to Laval's industrial school. Judging 
from repeated complaints of governors and intend- 
ants of the dearth of skilled workmen, the priests 
in charge of it were more successful in making 
good Catholics than in making good masons, car- 
penters, blacksmiths, and weavers ; and the num- 
ber of pupils, even if well trained, was at no time 
sufficient to meet the wants of the colony;^ for, 
though the Canadians showed an aptitude for 



1 For an interesting account of the shrine at the Petit Cap, see Cas- 
grain, Le P^l^rinage de la Bonne Sainte Anne, a little manual of devotion 
printed at Quebec. I chanced to visit the old chapel in 1871, during a 
meeting of the parish to consider the question of reconstructing it, as 
it was in a ruinous state. Passing that way again two years after, I 
found the old chapel still standing, and a new one, much larger, half 
finished. 

'- Most of them were moreover retained, after leaving the school, by 
the seminary, as servants, farmers, or vassals. La Tour, Vie de Laval, 
Liv. VI 



1603-1703. 1 RESULTS. 365 

mechanical trades, they preferred above all thinga 
the savage liberty of the backwoods. 

The education of girls was in the hands of the 
Ursulines and the nuns of the Congregation, of 
whom the former, besides careful instruction in 
religious duties, taught their pupils " all that a girl 
ought to know." ^ This meant exceedingly httle 
besides the manual arts suited to their sex ; and, 
in the case of the nuns of the Congregation, who 
taught girls of the poorer class, it meant still less. 
It was on nuns as well as on priests that the charge 
fell, not only of spiritual and mental, but also of 
industrial, training. Thus we find the king giving 
to a sisterhood of Montreal a thousand francs to 
buy wool, and a thousand more for teaching girls 
to knit.^ The king also maintained a teacher of 
navigation and surveying at Quebec on the modest 
salary of four hundred francs. 

During the eighteenth century, some improve- 
ment is perceptible in the mental stas. of the 
population. As it became more numerous and 
m.ore stable, it also became less ignorant ; and the 
Canadian habitant, towards the end of the French 
rule, was probably better taught, so far as concerned 
religion, than the mass of French peasants. Yet 
secular instruction was still extremely meagre, even 
in the nohlesse. " In spite of this defective educa- 
tion," says the famous navigator, Bougainville, who 
knew the colony weU in its last years, " the Cana- 

1 A lire, k ecrire, les pri^res, les moeurs chr^tiennes, et tout ce qu'une 
fille doit savoir. Marie de I'lncamation, Lettre du 9 Aout, 1668. 
- Denonville au Ministre, 13 Nov., 1686. 



366 PRIESTS AND PEOPLE. [1663-1763. 

dians are naturally intelligent. They do not know 
how to write, but they speak with ease and with 
an accent as good as the Parisian." ^ He means, 
of course, the better class. "Even the children 
of officers and gentlemen," says another writer, 
" scarcely know how to read and write ; they are 
ignorant of the first elements of geography and 
history." ^ And evidence like this might be ex- 
tended. 

When France was heaving with the throes 
that prepared the Revolution ; when new hopes, 
new dreams, new thoughts, — good and evil, false 
and true, — tossed the troubled waters of French 
society, Canada caught something of its social 
corruption, but not the faintest impulsion of its 
roused mental life. The torrent surged on its 
way ; while, in the deep nook beside it, the sticks 
and dry leaves floated their usual round, and the 
unruffled pool slept in the placidity of intellectual 
torpor.^ 

1 Bougainville, Memoire de 1757 (see Margry, Relations inidites). 

2 MSmoire de 1736; Detail de toute la Colonie (published by Hist. Soc. of 
Quebec). 

^ Several Frenchmen of a certain intellectual eminence made their 
abode in Canada from time to time. The chief among them are the 
Jesuit Lafitau, author of Mceurs des Sauvages Americains ; the Jesuit 
Charlevoix, traveller and historian ; the physician Sarrazin ; and the 
Marquis de la Gahsonniere, the most enlightened of the Trench gover- 
nors of Canada. Sarrazin, a naturalist as well as a physician, has left 
his name to the botanical genus Sarracenia, of which the curious Amer- 
ican species, 5. purpurea, the "pitcher-plant," was described by him. 
His position in the colony was singular and characteristic. He got little 
or no pay from his patients ; and, though at one time the only genuine 
physician in Canada {CalHeres et Beauharnois au Ministre, 3 Nov., 1702), 
he was dependent on the king for support. In 1699, we find him thank- 
ing his Majesty for 300 francs a year, and asking at the same time for 



1663-1763.] MICHEL SARRAZIN. 367 

more, as he has nothing else to live on. ( CaUieres et Champigny au Ministre, 
20 Oct., 1699.) Two years later the governor writes that, as he serves 
almost everybody without fees, he ought to have another 300 francs. 
(Ibid., 5 Oct., 1701.) The additional 300 francs was given him; but, find- 
ing it insufficient, he wanted to leave the colony. " He is too useful," 
writes the governor again : " we cannot let him go." His yearly pittance 
of 600 francs, French money, was at one time re-enforced by his salary 
as member of the Superior Council. He died at Quebec in 1734. 



CHAPTER XX. 

1640-1763. 
MOEALS AND MANNEES. 

Social Influence of the Troops. — A Pettt Tyrant. — Brawls. 
— Violence and Outlawry. — State of the Population. — 
Views of Denonville. — Brandy. — Beggary. — The Past and 
THE Present. — Inns. — State op Quebec. — Fires. — The 
Country Parishes. — Slavery. — Views of La Hontan. — Of 
HocQUART. — Of Bougainville. — Of Kalm. — Of Charlevoix, 

The mission period of Canada, or the period 
anterior to the year 1663, when the king took the 
colony in charge, has a character of its own. The 
whole population did not exceed that of a large 
.French village. Its extreme poverty, the constant 
danger that surrounded it, and, above aU, the con 
tagious zeal of the missionaries, saved it from 
many vices, and inspired it with an extraordinary 
religious fervor. Without doubt an ideal picture 
has been drawn of this early epoch. Trade as 
well as propagandism was the business of the 
colony, and the colonists were far from being all in 
a state of grace ; yet it is certain that zeal was 
higher, devotion more constant, and popular morals 
more pure, than at any later period of the French 
rule. 

The intervention of the king wrought a change. 
The annual shipments of emigrants made by him 



1663-73.] CHANGE OF MANNEKS. 369 

were, in the most favorable view, of a very mixed 
character, and the portion which Mother Mary 
calls canaille was but too conspicuous. Along with 
them came a regiment of soldiers fresh from the 
license of camps and the excitements of Turkish 
wars, accustomed to obey their officers and to obey 
nothing else, and more ready to wear the scapulary 
of the Virgin in campaigns against the Mohawks 
than to square their lives by the rules of Christian 
ethics. " Our good Idng," writes Sister Morin, of 
Montreal, " has sent troops to defend us from the 
Iroquois, and the soldiers and officers have ruined 
the Lord's vineyard, and planted wickedness and 
sin and crime in our soil of Canada."^ Few, in- 
deed, among the officers followed the example of 
one of their number, Paul Dupuy, who, in his 
settlement of Isle aux Oies, below Quebec, lived, it 
is said, like a saint, and on Sundays and fete days 
exhorted his servants and habitans with such 
unction that their eyes filled with tears.^ Nor, let 
us hope, were there many imitators of Major La 
Frediere, who, with a company of the regiment, 
was sent to garrison Montreal, where he ruled with 
absolute sway over settlers and soldiers alike. His 
countenance naturally repulsive was made more so 
by the loss of an eye ; yet he was irrepressible in 
gallantry, and women and girls fled in terror from 
the military Polyphemus. The men, too, feared 
and hated him, not without reason. One morning 
a settler named Demers was hoeing his field, when 

1 Annales de VHotel-Dieu St Joseph, cited by Faillon. 

2 Jucliereau, Hotel-Dieu de Quebec, 511 

24 



370 MORALS AjSHD MANNERS. [1663-73 

hd saw a sportsman gun in hand striding through 
his haK-grown wheat. "Steady there, steady/' 
he shouted in a tone of remonstrance ; but the 
sportsman gave no heed. " Why do you spoil a 
poor man's wheat ? " cried the outraged cultivator, 
" If I knew who you were, I would go and com- 
plain of you." " Whom would you complain to ? '' 
demanded the sportsman, who then proceeded to 
walk back into the middle of the wheat, and called 
out to Demers, " You are a rascal, and I'll thrash 
you." " Look at home for rascals," retorted De- 
mers, " and keep your thrashing for your dogs." 
The sportsman came towards him in a rage to 
execute his threat. Demers picked up his gun, 
which, after the custom of the time, he had 
brought to the field with him, and, advancing to 
meet his adversary, recognized La Frediere, the 
commandant. On this he ran off. La Frediere 
sent soldiers to arrest him, threw him into prison, 
put him in irons, and the next day mounted him 
on the wooden horse, with a weight of sixty 
pounds tied to each foot. He repeated the torture 
a day or two after, and then let his victim go, say- 
ing, " If I could have caught you when I was in 
your wheat, I would have beaten you well." 

The commandant next turned his quarters into 
a dram-shop for Indians, to whom he sold brandy 
in large quantities, but so diluted that his cus- 
tomers, finding themselves partially defrauded of 
their right of intoxication, complained grievously. 
About this time the intend ant Talon made one of 
his domiciliary visits to Montreal, and when, in his 



1663-73.] BRAWLS. 371 

character of father of the people, he inquired if 
they had any complaints to make, every tongue 
was loud in accusation against La Frediere. Talon 
caused full depositions to be made out from the 
statements of Demers and other witnesses. Copies 
were deposited in the hands of the notary, and it 
is from these that the above story is drawn. The 
tyrant was removed, and ordered home to France.^ 
Many other officers embarked in the profitable 
trade of selHng brandy to Indians, and several gar- 
rison posts became centres of disorder. Others, 
of the regiment became notorious brawlers. A lieu- 
tenant of the garrison of Montreal named Carion, 
and an ensign named Morel, had for some reason 
conceived a violent grudge against another ensign 
named Lormeau. On Pentecost day, just after 
vespers, Lormeau was walking by the river with 
his wife. • They had passed the common and the 
seminary wall, and were in front of the house of 
the younger Charles Le Moyne, when they saw 
Carion coming towards them. He stopped before 
Lormeau, looked him full in the face, and ex- 
claimed, " Coward." " Coward yourself," returned 
Lormeau; "take yourself off." Carion drew his 
sword, and Lormeau followed his example. They 
exchanged a few passes ; then closed, and fell to the 
ground grappled together. Lormeau's wig fell off ; 
and Carion, getting the uppermost, hammered his 
bare head with the hilt of his sword. Lormeau's 



^ Information contre La Frediere. See Faillon, Colonie Frangaise,!!!. 
886. The dialogue, as here given from the depositions, is translated 
as closely as possible. 



372 MOEALS AND MANNERS. ri663-75 

wife, in a frenzy of terror, screamed murder. One 
of the neighbors. Monsieur Beletre, was at table 
with Charles Le Moyne and a Eochelle merchant 
named Baston. He ran out with his two guests, 
and they tried to separate the combatants, who 
still lay on the ground foaming like a pair of en- 
raged bull-dogs. All their efforts were useless. 
" Very well," said Le Moyne in disgust, " if you 
won't let go, then kill each other if you like." A 
former military servant of Carion now ran up, and 
began to brandish his sword in behalf of his late 
master. Carion's comrade. Morel, also arrived, 
and, regardless of the angry protest of Le Moyne, 
stabbed repeatedly at Lormeau as he lay. Lor- 
meau had received two or three wounds in the 
hand and arm with which he parried the thrusts, 
and was besides severely mauled by the sword- 
hilt of Carion, when two Sulpitian priests, drawn 
by the noise, appeared on the scene. One was 
Fremont, the cure; the other was Dollier de 
Casson. That herculean father, whose past soldier 
life had made him at home in a fray, and who 
cared nothing for drawn swords, set himself at 
once to restore peace, upon which, whether from 
the strength of his arm, or the mere effect of his 
presence, the two champions released their gripe 
on each other's throats, rose, sheathed their wea- 
pons, and left the field.-' 

Montreal, a frontier town at the head of the 

» Eequete de Lormeau a M. cTAillebout. Depositions de MM. de 
Longueuil {Le Moyne), de Baston, de Beletre, et autres. Cited by Faillon, 
Cdonie Frant^aise, III. 393. 



1663-73.] THE OUTLAW OF MONTREAL. 373 

colony, was the natural resort of desperadoes, 
offering, as we have seen, a singular contrast be- 
tween the rigor of its clerical seigniors and the 
riotous license of the lawless crew which infested it. 
Dollier de Casson tells the story of an outlaw who 
broke prison ten or twelve times, and whom no 
walls, locks, or fetters could hold. " A few months 
ago," he says, " he was caught again, and put into 
the keeping of six or seven men, each with a good 
gun. They stacked their arms to play a game of 
cards, which their prisoner saw fit to interrupt to 
play a game of his own. He made a jump at 
the guns, took them under his arm like so many 
feathers, aimed at these fellows with one of them, 
swearing that he would kill the first who came near 
him, and so, falling back step by step, at last bade 
them good-by, and carried off all their guns. 
Since then he has not been caught, and is roaming 
the woods. Very Kkely he will become cliief of 
our banditti, and make great trouble in the coun- 
try when it pleases him to come back from the 
Dutch settlements, whither they say he is gone 
along with another rascal, and a French woman so 
depraved that she is said to have given or sold 
two of her children to the Indians." ^ 

When the governor. La Barre, visited Montreal, 
he found there some two hundred reprobates 
gambhng, drinking, and stealing. If hard pressed 
by justice, they had only to cross the river and 
place themselves beyond the seigniorial jurisdic- 
tion. The military settlements of the RicheUeu 

1 Dollier de Casson, Histoire de Montreal, 1671 72 



374 MORALS AND MANNERS. 11670-90. 

were in a condition somewhat similar, and La Barre 
complains of a prevailing spirit of disobedience and 
lawlessness.^ The most orderly and thrifty part 
of Canada appears to have been at this time the 
cote of Beaiipre, belonging to the seminary of Qi le- 
bec. Here .the settlers had religious instruction 
from their cur^s, and industrial instruction also if 
they wanted it. Domestic spinning and weaving 
were practised at Beaupr^ sooner than in any 
other part of the colony. 

When it is remembered that a population which 
in La Barre's time did not exceed ten thousand, 
and which forty years later did not much exceed 
twice that number, was scattered along both sides 
of a great river for three hundred miles or more ; 
that a large part of this population was in isolated 
groups of two, three, five, ten, or twenty houses 
at the edge of a savage wilderness ; that between 
them there was little communication except by 
canoes ; that the settlers were disbanded soldiers, 
or others whose fives had been equally adverse to 
habits of reflection or self-control ; that they rarely 
saw a priest, and that a government omnipotent in 
name had not arms long enough to reach them, — 
we may listen without surprise to the lamentations 
of order-loving officials over the unruly condition 
of a great part of the colony. One accuses the 
seigniors, who, he says, being often of low extrac- 
tion, cannot keep their vassals in order.^ Another 
dwells sorrowfully on the " terrible dispersion " of 

* La Barre au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1683. 

2 Catalogne, M^moire address^ au Ministre, 1712 



1670-90.1 SOCIAL DISORDER. 375 

the settlements where the inhabitants " live in a 
savage independence." But it is better that each 
should speak for himself, and among the rest let 
\ifs hear the pious Denonville. 

" This, monseigneur, seems to me the place for 
rendering you an account of the disorders which 
prevail not only in the woods, but also in the settle- 
ments. They arise from the idleness of young 
persons, and the great liberty which fathers, 
mothers, and guardians have for a long time given 
them, or allowed them to assume, of going into the 
forest under pretence of hunting or trading. This 
has come to such a pass, that, from the moment a 
boy can carry a gun, the father cannot restrain 
him and dares not offend him. You can judge the 
mischief that follows. These disorders are always 
greatest in the families of those who are gentils- 
hommes, or who through laziness or vanity pass 
themselves off as such. Having no resource but 
hunting, they must spend their lives in the woods, 
where they have no cur6s to trouble them, and no 
fathers or guardians to constrain them. I think, 
monseigneur, that martial law would suit their 
case better than any judicial sentence. 

" Monsieur de la Barre suppressed a certain order 
of knighthood which had sprung up here, but he 
did not abolish the usages belongijig to it. It was 
thought a fine thing and a good joke to go about 
naked and tricked out like Indians, not only on 
carnival days, but on all other days of feasting and 
debauchery. These practices tend to encourage 
the disposition oi our young men to live like sav- 



376 MOEALS AND MANNERS. [1670-90. 

ages, frequent their company, and/ be for ever 
unruly and lawless like them. I cannot tell you, 
monseigneur, how attractive this Indian life is to 
all our youth. It consists in doing nothing, caring 
for nothing, following every inclination, and getting 
out of the way of all correction." He goes on to 
say that the mission villages governed by the Jes- 
uits and Sulpitians are models of good order, and 
that drunkards are never seen there except when 
they come from the neighboring French settle- 
ments; but that the other Indians who roam at 
large about the colony, do prodigious mischief, be- 
cause the children of the seigniors not only copy 
their way of life, but also run o&. with their women 
into the woods.^ 

" Nothing," he continues, " can be finer or better 
conceived than the regulations framed for the 
government of this country ; but nothing, I assure 
you, is so ill observed as regards both the fur trade 
and the general discipline of the colony. One 
great evil is the infinite number of drinking-shops, 
which makes it almost impossible to remedy the 
disorders resulting from them. All the rascals 
and idlers of the country are attracted into this 
business of tavern-keeping. They never dream of 
tilling the soil ; but, on the contrary, they deter the 
other inhabitants from it, and end with ruining 

' Raudot, who was intendant early in the eighteenth century, is a 
little less gloomy in his coloring, but says that Canadian children were 
without discipline or education, had no respect for parents or cure's, and 
ciwned no superiors. This, he thinks, is owing to "la foUe tendresse des 
jiarents qui les empeche de les corriger et de leur former le caractere 
qu'ils out dur et fe'roc©." 



1670-90.] SOCIAL DISORDER. 377 

them. I know seigniories where there are but 
twenty houses, and more than half of them dram 
shops. At Three Rivers there are twenty- five 
houses, and liquor may be had at eighteen or 
twenty of them. Villemarie {Montreal) and Que- 
bec are on the same footing." 

The governor next dwells on the necessity ot 
finding occupation for children and youths, a mat- 
ter which he regards as of the last importance. 
" It is sad to see the ignorance of the population 
at a distance from the abodes of the cures, who are 
put to the greatest trouble to remedy the evil by 
travelling from place to place through the parishes 
in their charge." ^ 

La Barre, Champigny, and Duchesneau write in 
a similar strain. Bishop Saint- Vallier, in an epis- 
tolary journal which he printed of a tour through 
the colony made on his first arrival, gives a favor- 
able account of the disposition of the people, espe- 
cially as regards religion. He afterwards changed 
his views. An abstract made from his letters for 
the use of the king states that he " represents, like 
M. Denonville, that the Canadian youth are for 
the most part wholly demoralized." ^ 

" The bishop was very sorry," says a corre- 
spondent of the minister at Quebec, " to have so 
much exaggerated in the letter he printed at Paris 
the morality of the people here." ^ He preached 
a sermon on the sins of the inhabitants and issued 
a pastoral mandate, in which he says, " Before we 

1 Denonville au Ministre, 13 Nov. 1686. 

* N. y. Colonial Dociiments, IX. 278. 8 JUd., IX. 388. 



378 MOKALS AND MANNERS. tl670-90 

knew our flock we thought that the English and 
the Iroquois were the only wolves we had to fear ; 
but God having opened our eyes to the disorders 
of this diocese, and made us feel more than ever 
the weight of our charge, we are forced to confess 
tliat our most dangerous foes are drunkenness, 
luxury, impurity, and slander." ^ 

Drunkenness was at this time the most destruc- 
tive vice in the colony. One writer declares that 
most of the Canadians drink so much brandy in 
the morning, that they are unfit for work all day.^ 
Another says that a canoe-man when he is tired 
will lift a keg of brandy to his lips and drink the 
raw liquor from the bung-hole, after which, having 
spoiled his appetite, he goes to bed supperless; 
and that, what with drink and hardship, he is an 
old man at forty. Nevertheless the race did not de- 
teriorate. The prevalence of early marriages, and 
the birth of numerous offspring before the vigor of 
the father had been wasted, ensured the strength and 
hardihood which characterized the Canadians. As 
Denonville describes them so they long remained. 
" The Canadians are tall, well-made, and well set 
on their legs {hienplantes sur leurs jamhes), robust, 
vigorous, and accustomed in time of need to live 
on little. They have intelligence and vivacity, 
but are wayward, light-minded, and inclined to 
debauchery." 

As the population increased, as the rage for 

1 Ordonnance centre les vices de I'ivrognerie, luxe, et impuret€, 81 Oct., 
1690. 

2 N Y. Colonial Documents. IX. 398. 



ie)70-1716.| IMPROVEMENT. 379 

bush-ranging began to abate, and, above all, as the 
cures multiplied, a change took place for the 
better. More churches were built, the charge of 
each priest was reduced within reasonable bounds, 
and a greater proportion of the inhabitants re- 
mained on their farms. They were better watched, 
controlled, and taught, by the church. The eccle- 
siastical power, wherever it had a hold, was exer- 
cised, as we have seen, with an undue rigor, yet it 
was the chief guardian of good morals; and the 
colony grew more orderly and more temperate as 
the church gathered more and more of its wild 
and wandering flock fairly within its fold. In 
this, however, its success was but relative. It is 
true that in 1715 a well-informed writer says that 
the people were " perfectly instructed in religion ; "^ 
but at that time the statement was only partially 
true. 

During the seventeenth century, and some time 
after its close, Canada swarmed with beggars, a 
singular feature in a new country where a good farm 
could be had for the asking. In countries intensely 
Roman Cathohc begging is not regarded as an un- 
mixed evil, being supposed to promote two cardinal 
virtues, — charity in the giver and hiunility in the 
receiver. The Canadian officials nevertheless tried 
to restrain it. Vagabonds of both sexes were 
ordered to leave Quebec, and nobody was allowed 
to beg without a certificate of poverty from the 
cur^ or the local judge. ^ These orders were not 

• M€moire address^ au Regent. 
2 Rdglement de Police, 1676. 



380 MORALS AND MANNERS. [1670-1700 

always observed. Bishop Saint- Yallier writes that 
he is overwhelmed by beggars/ and the intendant 
echoes liis complaint. Almshouses were estab- 
lished at Montreal, Three Rivers, and Quebec;^ 
and when Saint-Vallier founded the General Hos- 
pital, its chief purpose was to serve, not as a hos- 
pital in the ordinary sense of the word, but as a 
house of refuge, after the plan of the General 
Hospital of Paris.^ Appeal, as usual, was made to 
the king. Denonville asks his aid for two desti- 
tute families, and says that many others need it. 
Louis XIV. did not fail to respond, and from time 
to time he sent considerable sums for the relief of 
the Canadian poor.* 

Denonville says, " The principal reason of the 
poverty of this country is the idleness and bad 
conduct of most of the people. The greater part of 
the women, including all the demoiselles, are very 
lazy."^ Meules proposes as a remedy that the king 
should establish a general workshop in the colony, 
and pay the workmen himself during the first five 
or six years.^ " The persons here," he says, " who 
have wished to make a figure are nearly all so 
overwhelmed with debt that they may be con- 



1 N. Y, Colonial Documents, IX. 279. 

2 Edits et Ordonnances, II. 119. 

8 On the General Hospital of Quebec, see Juchereau, 355. In 1692, 
the minister writes to Frontenac and Champigny that they should con- 
eider well whether this house of refuge will not " augmenter la faineantise 
panui les habitans," by giving them a sure support in poverty. 

4 As late as 1701, six thousand livres were granted Callihres au 
Ministre, 4 Nov., 1701. 

5 Denonville et Champigny au Ministre, 6 Nov., 1687. 

6 Meules au Ministre, 12 Nov., 1682. 



M70-1700.1 POVERTY. 38] 

sidered as in the last necessity." ^ He adds that 
many of the people go half -naked even in winter. 
" The merchants of this country," says the intend- 
ant Duchesneau, " are all plunged in poverty, 
except five or six at the most ; it is the same with 
the artisans, except a small number, because the 
vanity of the women and the debauchery of the men 
consume all their gains. As for such of the labor- 
ing class as apply themselves steadily to culti- 
vating the soil, they not only live very well, but 
are incomparably better off than the better sort of 
peasants in France."^ 

All the writers lament the extravagant habits of 
the people ; and even La Hontan joins hands with 
the priests in wishing that the supply of ribbons, 
laces, brocades, jewelry, and the like, might be cut 
off by act of law. Mother Juchereau tells us that, 
when the English invasion was impending, the belles 
of Canada were scared for a while into modesty in 
order to gain the favor of heaven ; but, as may be 
imagined, the effect was short, and Father La Tour 
declares that in his time all the fashions except 
rouge came over regularly in the annual ships. 

The manners of the mission period, on the other 
hand, were extremely simple. The old governor, 
Lauzon, lived on pease and bacon like a laborer, and 
kept no man-servant. He was regarded, it is true, 
as a miser, and held in slight account.^ Magdeleine 
Boucher, sister of the governor of Three Rivers, 

1 Meules, M€moire touchant le Canada et I'Acadie, 1684. 
* Duchesneau au Ministre, 10 Nov., 1679. 
' M€moire d'Aubert de la Chesnaye, 1676 



382 MORALS AND MANNERS. il645-63. 

brought her husband two hundred francs in monej^, 
four sheets, two table-cloths, six napkins of linen 
and hemp, a mattress, a blanket, two dishes, six 
spoons and six tin plates, a pot and a kettle, a table 
and two benches, a kneading-trough, a chest with 
lock and key, a cow, and a pair of hogs.^ But the 
Bouchers were a family of distinction, and the 
bride's dowry answered to her station. By another 
marriage contract, at about the same time, the 
parents of the bride, being of humble degree, bind 
themselves to present the bridegroom with a barrel 
of bacon, deliverable on the arrival of the ships 
from France.^ 

Some curious traits of this early day appear 
in the license of Jean Boisdon as innkeeper. He 
is required to establish himself on the great square 
of Quebec, close to the church, so that the parish- 
ioners may conveniently warm and refresh them- 
selves between the services; but he is forbidden 
to entertain anybody during high mass, sermon, 
catechism, or vespers.^ Matters soon changed; 
Jean Boisdon lost his monopoly, and inns sprang 
up on all hands. They did not want for patrons, 
and we find some of their proprietors mentioned 
as among the few thriving men in Canada. Talon 
tried to regulate them, and, among other rules, 
ordained that no innkeeper should furnish food or 
drink to any hired laborer whatever, or to any 

• Contrat de marriage, cited by Ferland, Notes, 73. 

2 Contrat de marriage, cited by Benjamin Suite in Rejme Canadienne, 
IX. 111. 

8 Acte officielle, 1648, cited by Ferland. Cours d'Histoire du Canada, L 
B65. 



Ifi72-1701.| STATE OP QUEBEC. 383 

person residing in the place where his inn waa 
situated. An innkeeper of Montreal was fined for 
allowing the syndic of the town to dine under his 
roof.^ 

One gets glimpses of the pristine state of Quebec 
through the early police regulations. Each in- 
habitant was required to make a gutter along the 
middle of the street before his house, and also to 
remove refuse and throw it into the river. All 
dogs, mthout exception, were ordered home at 
nine o'clock. On Tuesdays and Fridays there was 
a market in the public square, whither the neigh- 
boring habitants, male and female, brought their 
produce for sale, as they still continue to do. 
Smoking in the street was forbidden, as a pre- 
caution against fire ; householders were required 
to provide themselves with ladders, and when 
the fire alarm was rung all able-bodied per- 
sons were obliged to run to the scene of danger 
with buckets or kettles full of water.^ This did 
not prevent the Lower Town from burning to the 
ground in 1682. It was soon rebuilt, but a repeti- 
tion of the catastrophe seemed very likely. " This 
place," says Denonville, " is in a fearful state as 
regards fire ; for the houses are crowded together out 
of all reason, and so surrounded with piles of cord- 
wood that it is pitiful to see." ^ Add to this the 
stores of hay for the cows kept by many of the 
inhabitants for the benefit of their swarming prog- 

1 Faillon, Colonie Frangaise, III. 405. 

2 R^glement de Police, 1672. Ibid., 1676. 
' Denonville au Ministre, 20 Aout, 1686 



384 MORALS AND MANNERS. [1672-1701 

eny. The houses were at this time low, compact 
buildings, with gables of masonry, as required by 
law; but many had wooden fronts, and all had 
roofs covered with cedar shingles. The anxious 
governor begs that, as the town has not a sou of 
revenue, his Majesty will be pleased to make it the 
gift of two hundred crowns' worth of leather fire- 
buckets.^ Six or seven years after, certain citizens 
were authorized by the council to import from 
France, at their own cost^ " a pump after the 
Dutch fashion, for throwing water on houses in 
case of fire."^ How a fire was managed at Quebec 
appears from' a letter of the engineer, Vasseur, 
describing the burning of Laval's seminary in 1701. 
Vasseur was then at Quebec, directing the new 
fortifications. On a Monday in November, all tho 
pupils of the seminary and most of the priests 
went, according to their weekly custom, to rec- 
reate themselves at a house and garden at St. 
Michel, a short distance from town. The few 
priests who remained went after dinner to say 
vespers at the church. Only one. Father Petit, 
was left in the seminary, and he presently repaired 
to the great hall to rekindle the fire in the stove 
and warm the place against the return of his 
brethren. His success surpassed his wishes. A 
firebrand snapped out in his absence and set the 
pine floor in a blaze. Father Boucher, cure of 
Point Levi, chanced to come in, and was half 
choked by the smoke. He cviedjirel the servants 

1 Denonville au Ministre, 20 Aout, J685. 

2 R€glement de. 1691, extract in Ferland. 



nOl.] BURNING OF THE SEMINARr. 385 

ran for water ; but the flames soon mastered them ; 
the}'' screamed the alarm, and the bells began to 
ting. Yasseur was dining with the intendant at 
his palace by the St. Charles, when he heard a 
frightened voice crying out, "Monsieur, you are 
wanted ; you are wanted." He sprang from table, 
saw the smoke rolling in volumes from the top of 
the rock, ran up the steep ascent, reached the 
seminary, and found an excited crowd making a 
prodigious outcry. He shouted for carpenters. 
Four men came to him, and he set them at work 
with such tools as they had to tear away planks 
and beams, and prevent the fire from spreading to 
the adjacent parts of the building ; but, when he 
went to find others to help them, they ran off. 
He set new men in their place, and these too ran 
off the moment his back was turned. A cry was 
raised that the building was to be blown up, on 
which the crowd scattered for their lives. Vasseur 
now gave up the seminary for lost, and thought 
only of cutting off the fire from the rear of the 
church, which was not far distant. In this he suc- 
ceeded, by tearing down an intervening wing or 
gallery. The walls of the burning building were 
of massive stone, and by seven o'clock the fire had 
spent itself. We hear nothing of the Dutch 
pump, nor does it appear that the soldiers of the 
garrison made any effort to keep order. Under 
cover of the confusion, property was stolen from 
the seminary to the amount of about two thousand 
livres, which is remarkable, considering the relig- 
ious character of the building, and the supposed 

25 



38G MOEALS AND MANNER». [170U-b3, 

piety of the people. " There were more than 
three hundred persons at the fire," says Vasseur; 
"but thirty picked men would have been wortt 
more than the whole of them."^ 

August, September, and October were the busy 
months at Quebec. Then the ships from France 
discharged their lading, the shops and warehouses 
of tlie Lower Town were filled with goods, and the 
habitants came to town to make their purchases. 
When the frosts began, the vessels sailed away, the 
harbor was deserted, the streets were silent again, 
and like ants or squirrels the people set at work 
to lay in their winter stores. Fathers of families 
packed their cellars with beets, carrots, potatoes, 
and cabbages ; and, at the end of autumn, with 
meat, fowls, game, fish, and eels, all frozen to 
stony hardness. Most of the shops closed, and 
the long season of leisure and amusement began. 
New Year's day brought visits and mutual gifts. 
Thence till Lent dinner parties were frequent, 
sometimes familiar and sometimes ceremonious. 
The governor's little court at the chateau was a 
standing example to all the aspiring spirits of 
Quebec, and forms and orders of precedence were 
in some houses punctiliously observed. There 
were dinners to the military and civic dignitaries 
and their wives, and others, quite distinct, to 
prominent citizens. The wives and daughters of 
the burghers of Quebec are said to have been 
superior in manners to women of the corresponding 

1 Vasseur an Ministre, 2-1 Nov., 1701. Like Denonville before him, ho 
nrges the need of fire-buckets. 



1700-631 THE COUNTRY PARISHES. 387 

class in France. " They have wit," says La Pothe- 
rie, " dehcacy, good voices, and a great fondness 
for dancing. They are discreet, and not much 
given to flirting; but when they undertake to 
catch a lover it is not easy for him to escape the 
bands of Hymen."' 

So much for the town. In the country parishes, 
there was the same autumnal stowing away of 
frozen vegetables, meat, fish, and eels, and un- 
fortunately the same surfeit of leisure through 
five months of the year. During the seventeenth 
century, many of the people were so poor that 
women were forced to keep at home from sheer 
want of winter clothing. Nothing, however, could 
prevent their running from house to house to ex- 
change gossip with the neighbors, who all knew 
each other, and, having nothing else to do, dis- 
cussed each other's affairs with an industry which 
often bred bitter quarrels. At a later period, a 
more general introduction of family weaving and 
spinning served at once to furnish clothing and to 
promote domestic peace. 

The most important persons in a parish were the 
cure, the seignior, and the militia captain. The 
seignior had his bench of honor in the church. 
Immediately behind it was the bench of the militia 
captain, whose duty it was to drill the able-bodied 
men of the neighborhood, direct road-making and 
other public works, and serve as deputy to the 
intendant, whose ordinances he was required to 
enforce. Next in honor came the local judge '.' 
any there was, and the church-wardens. 

1 La Potherie. I. 279. 



388 MORALS AND MANNERS. 11686-1763. 

Tlie existence of slavery in Canada dates from 
the end of the seventeenth century. In 1688, the 
attorney-general made a visit to Paris, and urged 
upon the king the expediency of importing negroes 
from the West Indies as a remedy for the scarcity 
and dearness of labor. The king consented, but 
advised caution, on the ground that the rigor of 
the climate would make the venture a critical one.^ 
A number of slaves were brought into the colony ; 
but the system never flourished, the climate and 
other circumstances being hostile to it. Many of 
the colonists, especially at Detroit and other outly- 
ing posts, owned slaves of a remote Indian tribe, 
the Pawnees. The fact is remarkable, since it 
would be difficult to find another of the wild tribes 
of the continent capable of subjection to domestic 
servitude. The Pawnee slaves were captives taken 
in war and sold at low prices to the Canadians. 
Their market value was much impaired by their 
propensity to run off. 

It is curious to observe the views of the Cana- 
dians taken at different times by different writers. 
La Hontan says, " They are vigorous, enterprising, 
and indefatigable, and need nothing but education. 
They are presumptuous and full of self-conceit, 
regard themselves as above all the nations of the 
earth, and, unfortunately, have not the veneration 
for their parents that they ought to have. The 
women are generally pretty; few of them are 

1 Instruction au Sr. de Frontenac, 1689. On Canadian slarery, see a 
long paper, I'Esclavage en Canada, published by the Historical Society 
of MDntreal. 



1736.] CANADIAN LIFE. 389 

brunettes ; many of them are discreet, A,nd a good 
nmnber are lazy. They are fond to the last degree 
of dress and show, and each tries to outdo the rest 
in the art of catching a husband."^ 

Fifty years later, the intendant Hocquart writes, 
" The Canadians are fond of distinctions and at- 
tentions, plume themselves on their courage, and 
are extremely sensitive to slights or the smallest 
corrections. They are self-interested, vindictive, 
prone to drunkenness, use a great deal of brandy, 
and pass f )r not being at all truthful. This por- 
trait is tiLie of many of them, particularly the 
country people : those of the towns are less vicious. 
They are all attached to religion, and criminals are 
rare. They are volatile, and think too well of 
themselves, which prevents their succeeding as 
they might in farming and trade. They have not 
the rude and rustic air of our French peasants. 
If they are put on their honor and governed with 
justice, they are tractable enough ; but their natural 
disposition is indocile."^ 

The navigator Bougainville, in the last years of 
the French rule, describes the Canadian habitant 
as essentially superior to the French peasant, and 
adds, " He is loud, boastful, mendacious, obHging, 
civil, and honest ; indefatigable in hunting, travel- 
ling, and bush-ranging, but lazy in tilling the 
soil." 3 

The Swedish botanist, Kalm, an excellent ob- 
server, was in Canada a few years before Bougain- 

1 La Hontan, II. 8l (ed. 1709). 2 M^moire de 1736. 

' M^moire de 1757, printed in Margry, Reloiions In^dites. 



390 MORALS AKD MANNERS. 11749 

ville, and sketches from life the following traits of 
Canadian manners. The language is that of the 
old English translation. " The men here {at Mon- 
treal) are extremely civil, and take their hats off 
to every person indifferently whom they meet in 
the streets. The women in general are handsome ; 
they are well bred and virtuous, with an innocent 
and becoming freedom. They dress out very fine 
on Sundays, and though on the other days they do 
not take much pains with the other parts of their 
dress, yet they are very fond of adorning their 
heads, the hair of which is always curled and 
powdered and ornamented with glittering bodkins 
and aigrettes. They are not averse to taking part 
in all the business of housekeeping, and I have 
with pleasure seen the daughters of the better 
sort of people, and of the governor {of Montreal) 
himself, not too finely dressed, and going into 
kitchens and cellars to look that every thing be 
done as it ought. What I have mentioned above 
of their dressing their heads too assiduously is the 
case with all the ladies throughout Canada. Their 
hair is always curled even when they are at home 
in a dirty jacket, and short coarse petticoat that 
does not reach to the middle of their legs. On those 
days when they pay or receive visits they dress so 
gayly that one is almost induced to think their 
parents possess the greatest honors in the state. 
They are no less attentive to have the newest 
fashions, and they laugh at each other when they 
are not dressed to each other's fancy. One of the 
first questions they propose to a stranger is, 



1749.J CANADIAN LIFE. 391 

whether he is married ; the next, how he likes the 
ladies of the country, and whether he thinks them 
handsomer than those of his own country ; and the 
third, whether he will take one home with him. 
The behavior of the ladies seemed to me somewhat 
too free at Quebec, and of a more becoming mod- 
esty at Montreal. Those of Quebec are not very 
industrious. The young ladies, especially those of 
a higher rank, get up at seven and dress till nine, 
drinking their coffee at the same time. When 
they are dressed, they place themselves near a 
window that opens into the street, take up some 
needlework and sew a stitch now and then, but 
turn their eyes into the street most of the time. 
When a young fellow comes in, whether they are 
acquainted with him or not, they immediately lay 
aside their work, sit down by him, and begin to 
chat, laugh, joke, and invent douhle-entendres, and 
this is reckoned being very witty. In this manner 
they frequently pass the whole day, leaving their 
mothers to do the business of the house. They 
are hkewise cheerful and content, and nobody can 
say that they want either wit or charms. Their 
fault is that they think too well of themselves. 
However, the daughters of people of all ranks 
without exception go to market and carry home 
what they have bought. The girls at Montreal 
are very much displeased that those at Quebec get 
husbands sooner than they. The reason of this is 
that many young gentlemen who come over from 
France with the ships are captivated by the 
ladies at Quebec and marry them; but, as these 



392 MORALS AND MANNERS. 11720 

gentlemen seldom go up to Montreal, the girls there 
are not often so happy as those of the former 
place.'' ^ 

Long before Kalm's visit, the Jesuit Charlevoix, 
M traveller and a man of the world, wrote thus of 
Quebec in a letter to the Duchesse de Lesdiguieres : 
" There is a select little society here which wants 
nothing to make it agreeable. In the salo7is of the 
wives of the governor and of the intendant, one 
finds circles as brilliant as in other countries." 
These circles were formed partly of the principal 
inhabitants, but chiefly of military officers and 
government officials, with their families. Charle- 
voix continues, " Everybody does his part to make 
the time pass pleasantly, with games and parties of 
pleasure ; drives and canoe excursions in summer, 
sleighing and skating in winter. There is a great 
deal of hunting and shooting, for many Canadian 
gentlemen are almost destitute of any other means 
of living at their ease. The news of the day 
amounts to very little indeed, as the country fur- 
nishes scarcely any, while that from Europe comes 
all at once. Science and the fine arts have their 
turn, and conversation does not fail. The Cana- 
dians breathe from their birth an air of liberty, 
which makes them very pleasant in the intercourse 
of life, and our language is nowhere more purely 
spoken. One finds here no rich persons whatever, 
and this is a great pity ; for the Canadians like to 
get the credit of their money, and scarcely any- 

1 Kalm, Travels into North America, translated into English by John 
Reinold Forster (London, 1771), 56, 282, etc. 



1720.] CANADIAN LIFE. 393 

body amuses himself with hoarding it. They say it 
is very different with our neighbors the English, 
and one who knew the two colonies only by the 
way of living, acting, and speaking of the colonists 
would not hesitate to judge ours the more flourish- 
ing. In New England and the other British colo- 
nies, there reigns an opulence by which the people 
seem not to know how to profit; while in New 
France poverty is hidden under an air of ease 
which appears entirely natural. The English colo- 
nist keeps as much and spends as little as possible : 
the French colonist enjoys what he has got, and 
often makes a display of what he has not got. 
The one labors for his heirs : the other leaves them 
to get on as they can, like himself. I could push 
the comparison farther ; but I must close here : the 
king's ship is about to sail, and the merchant 
vessels are getting ready to follow. In three days 
perhaps, not one will be left in the harbor." ^ 

And now we, too, will leave Canada. Winter 
draws near, and the first patch of snow lies gleam- 
ing on the distant mountain of Cape Tourmente. 
The sun has set in chill autumnal beauty, and the 
sharp spires of fir-trees on the heights of Sillery 
stand stiff and black against the pure cold amber of 
the fading west. The ship sails in the morning ; 
and, before the old towers of Rochelle rise in sight, 
there will be time to smoke many a pipe, and pon- 
der what we have seen on the banks of the St 
Lawrence. 

1 CharleToix. Journal Htstonque 80 (ed. 1744). 



CHAPTER XXI. 

1663-1763. 

• CA2JADIAN ABSOLUTISM. 

PosMATiON OP Canadian Chaeactek. — The Rival Colon ibb. — 
England and France. — New England. — Chakactekistics op 
Eacb. — Military Qualities. — The Church. — The English 
Conquest. 

Not institutions alone, but geographical position, 
climate, and many other conditions unite to form 
the educational influences that, acting through 
successive generations, shape the character of na- 
tions and communities. 

It is easy to see the nature of the education, 
past and present, which wrought on the Canadians 
and made them what they were. An ignorant 
population, sprung from a brave and active race, 
but trained to subjection and dependence through 
centuries of feudal and monarchical despotism, was 
planted in the wilderness by the hand of authority, 
and told to grow and flourish. Artificial stimulants 
were applied, but freedom was withheld. Per- 
petual intervention of government, regulations, 
restrictions, encouragements sometimes more mis- 
chievous than restrictions, a constant uncertainty 
what the authorities would do next, the fate of 



1663-1763.] ENGLISH COLONIZATION. 395 

each nican resting less with himseK than with 
another, vohtion enfeebled, self-reliance paralyzed, 
— the condition, in short, of a child held always 
under the rule of a father, in the main well- 
meaning and kind, sometimes generous, some- 
times neglectful, often capricious, and rarely 
very wise, — such were the influences under which 
Canada grew up. If she had prospered, it would 
have been sheer miracle. A man, to be a man, 
must feel that he holds his fate, in some good meas- 
ure, in his own hands. 

But this was not all. Against absolute authority 
there was a counter influence, rudely and wildly 
antagonistic. Canada was at the very portal of 
the great interior wilderness. The St. Lawrence 
and the Lakes were the highway to that domain 
of savage freedom ; and thither the disfranchised, 
half-starved seignior, and the discouraged habitant 
who could find no market for his produce, naturally 
enough betook themselves. Their lesson of sav- 
agery was well learned, and for many a year a 
boundless license and a stiff-handed authority bat- 
tled for the control of Canada. Nor, to the last, 
were church and state fairly masters of the field. 
The French rule was drawing towards its close 
when the intendant complained that though twenty- 
eight companies of regular troops were quartered 
in the colon}^, there were not soldiers enough to 
keep the people in order.^ One cannot but re- 
member that in a neighboring colony, far more 
populous, perfect order prevailed, with no other 

1 M^moire de 1736 (printed by the Historical Society of Quebec). 



396 CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM. [1663-1763 

guardians than a few constables chosen by the 
people themselves. 

Whence arose this difference, and other differ- 
ences equally striking, between the rival colonies ? 
It is easy to ascribe them to a difference of pohti- 
cal and religious institutions ; but the explanation 
does not cover the ground. The institutions of 
New England were utterly inapplicable to the 
population of New France, and the attempt to 
apply them would have wrought nothing but mis- 
chief. There are no political panaceas, except in 
the imagination of political quacks. To each degree 
and each variety of pubhc development there are 
corresponding institutions, best answering the pub- 
lic needs; and what is meat to one is poison to 
another. Freedom is for those who are fit for it. 
The rest will lose it, or turn it to corruption. 
Church and state were right in exercising authority 
over a people which had not learned the first rudi- 
ments of self-government. Their fault was not 
that they exercised authority, but that they exer- 
cised too much of it, and, instead of weaning the 
child to go alone, kept him in perpetual leading- 
strings, making him, if possible, more and more 
dependent, and less and less fit for freedom. 

In the building up of colonies, England suc- 
ceeded and France failed. The cause lies chiefly 
in the vast advantage drawn by England from the 
historical training of her people in habits of re- 
flection, forecast, industry, and self-reliance, — a 
training which enabled them to adopt and maintain 
an invigorating system of seK-rule, totally inap- 
Dlicable to their rivals. 



i663-17f>3.] CHARACTERISTICS OF RACE. 397 

The New England colonists were far less fugi- 
tives from oppression than voluntary exiles seek- 
ing the realization of an idea. They were neither 
peasants nor soldiers, but a substantial Puritan 
yeomanry, led by Puritan gentlemen and divines in 
thorough sympathy with them. They were neither 
sent out by the king, governed by him, nor helped 
by him. They grew up in utter neglect, and con- 
tinued neglect was the only boon they asked. Till 
their increasing strength roused the jealousy of 
the Crown, they were virtually independent; a 
republic, but by no means a democracy. They 
chose their governor and all their rulers from 
among themselves, made their own government 
and paid for it, supported their own clergy, de- 
fended themselves, and educated themselves. Un- 
der the hard and repellent surface of New EnglanrJ 
society lay the true foundations of a stable free- 
dom, — conscience, reflection, faith, patience, and 
public spirit. The cement of common interests, 
hopes, and duties compacted the whole people like 
a rock of conglomerate ; while the people of New 
France remained in a state of political segrega- 
tion, like a basket of pebli.es held together by the 
enclosure that surrounds them. 

It may be that the difference of liistorical ante- 
cedents would alone explain the difference of char- 
acter between the rival colonies; but there are 
deeper causes, the influence of which went far to 
determine the antecedents themselves. The Ger- 
manic race, and especially the Anglo-Saxon branch 
of it, is peculiarly masculine, and, therefore, pe- 



398 CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM. [1663-1763 

culiarly fitted for self-government. It submits its 
action habitually to the guidance of reason, and 
has the judicial faculty of seeing both sides of a 
question. The French Celt is cast in a different 
mould. He sees the end distinctly, and reasons 
about it with an admirable clearness ; but his own 
impulses and passions continually turn him away 
from it. Opposition excites him ; he is impatient 
of delay, is impelled always to extremes, and does 
not readily sacrifice a present inclination to an ulti- 
mate good. He delights in abstractions and gen- 
eralizations, cuts loose from unpleasing facts, and 
roams through an ocean of desires and theories. 

While New England prospered and Canada did 
not prosper, the French system had at least one 
great advantage. It favored military efficiency. 
The Canadian population sprang in great part from 
soldiers, and was to the last systematically rein- 
forced by disbanded soldiers. Its chief occupation 
was a continual training for forest war; it had 
Uttle or nothing to lose, and httle to do but fight 
and range the woods. This was not all. The 
Canadian government was essentially military. At 
its head was a soldier nobleman, often an old and 
able commander, and those beneath him caught his 
spirit and emulated his example. In spite of its 
political nothingness, in spite of poverty and hard- 
ship, and in spite even of trade, the upper stratum 
of Canadian society was animated by the pride 
and fire of that gallant nohlesse which held war as 
its only worthy calling, and prized honor more 
than Hfe. As for the habitant, the forest, lake. 



1663-1763.J MILITARY QUALITIES. 399 

and river were his true school ; and here, at least, 
he was an apt scholar. A skilful woodsman, a bold 
and adroit canoe-man, a willing fighter in time of 
need, often serving without pay, and receiving from 
government only his provisions and his canoe, he 
was more than ready at any time for any hardy 
enterprise ; and in the forest warfare of skirmish 
and surprise there were few to match him. An 
absolute government used him at will, and ex- 
perienced leaders guided his rugged valor to the 
best account. 

The New England man was precisely the samo 
material with that of wliich Cromwell formed his 
invincible " Ironsides ; " but he had very little 
forest experience. His geographical position cut 
him off completely from the great wilderness of 
the interior. The sea was his field of action. 
Without the aid of government, and in spite of its 
restrictions, he buUt up a prosperous commerce, 
and enriched himself by distant fisheries, neglected 
by the rivals before whose doors they lay. He 
knew every ocean from Greenland to Cape Horn, 
and the whales of the north and of the south had 
no more dangerous foe. But he was too busy to 
fight without good cause, and when he turned his 
hand to soldiering it was only to meet some press- 
ing need of the hour. The New England troops in 
the early wars were bands of raw fishermen and 
farmers, led by civilians decorated with military 
titles, and subject to the slow and uncertain action 
of legislative bodies. The officers had not learned 
to command, nor the men to obey. The remark- 



4.00 CANADIAN ABSOLUTISM. [1663-1763. 

able exploit of the capture of Louisburg, the 
strongest fortress in America, was the result of 
mere audacity and hardihood, backed by the 
rarest good luck. 

One great fact stands out conspicuous in Cana- 
dian history, — the Church of Rome. More even 
than the royal power she shaped the character and 
the destinies of the colony. She was its nurse and 
almost its mother ; and, wayivard and headstrong 
as it was, it never broke the ties of faith that held 
it to her. It was these ties which, in the absence 
of political franchises, formed under the old regime 
the only vital coherence in the population. The 
royal government was transient ; the church was 
permanent. The English conquest shattered the 
whole apparatus of civil administration at a blow, 
but it left her untouched. Governors, intendants, 
councils, and commandants, all were gone ; the 
principal seigniors fled the colony; and a people 
who had never learned to control themselves or 
help themselves were suddenly left to their own 
devices. Confusion, if not anarchy, would have 
followed but for the parish priests, who in a char- 
acter of double paternity, half spiritual and half 
temporal, became more than ever the guardians of 
order throughout Canada. 

This English conquest was the grand crisis of 
Canadian history. It was the beginning of a new 
life. With England came Protestantism, and the 
Canadian church grew purer and better in the 
presence of an adverse faith. Material growth, an 
increased mental activity, an education real though 



I66d-1763.j THE ENGLISH CONQUESl. 401 

fenced and guarded, a warm and genuine patriot- 
ism, all date from the peace of 1763. England 
imposed by the sword on reluctant Canada the 
boon of rational and ordered liberty. Through 
centuries of striving she had advanced from stage 
to stage of progress, dehberate and calm, never 
brealdng with her past, but making each fresh 
gain the base of a new success, enlarging popular 
liberties while bating nothing of that height and 
force of individual development which is the brain 
and heart of civilization ; and now, through a hard- 
earned victory, she taught the conquered colony to 
share the blessings she had won. A happier calam- 
ity never befell a people than the conquest of 
Canada by the British arms. 



APPENDIX. 



The ftillo^risg extracts are printed letter for letter from copies of the origiiiai 
documents.] 

A. 

THE HERMITAGE OF CAEN. 

M^MOIKE POUR FAIEE CONNOISTKE L'eSPRIT ET LA CONDUITE DB LA 
COMPAGNIB ESTABLIE EN LA VILLB DB CaEN, APPBLEE l'HeBHI- 
TAGE. 

(Extrait.) ' Bibliotheque Nationale. 

O'est en ce fameux Hermitage que le dit feu Sieur de Ber 
uieres a esleve plusieurs jeunes gens auxquels il enseignoit une 
espece d'oraison sublime et transcendante que Ton appelle I'orai- 
son purement passive, parceque I'esprit n'y agit point, mais 
regoit seulement la divine operation ; c'est cette espece d'oraison 
qui est la source de tant de visions et de revelations, dont I'Her- 
mitagc est si fecond ; et apres qu'il leur avoit subtilize et presque 
fait evaporer I'esprit par cette oraison rafiuee, il les rendoit 
capables de reconnoistre les Jansenistes les plus cachez ; en sorte 
que quelques uns de ces disciples ont dit qu'ils le connoissoient 
au flairer, comme les chiens font leur gibier, pour ensuite leur 
faire la chasse, neantmoins le dit Sieur de Bernieres disoit qu'il 
u'avoit pas I'odorat si subtil, mais que la marque k laquelle il 
connoissoit les Jansenistes estoit quand on improuvoit sa con- 
duite ou que Ton estoit oppos^ aux Jesuites .... Au com- 
mencement les personnes de cette compagnie ne se mesloient que 
de '.'assistance des pauvres, mais depuis que le feu Sieur de Ber- 
nieres qui estoit un simple laique, qui n'avoit point d'estude, s'en 
estant rendu le maistre, il persuada a ceux qui en sont qu'elle 
n'estoit pas seulement establie pour prendre soin des pauvres, 
mais de toutes les autres bonnes ceuvres, publiques ou parti- 

* This m^moire forms 116 pages in the copy in my possession. 



404 APPENDIX. 

cuiieres, qui regardent la Piete et la Religion et que Dieu lea 
avoit suscitez, principalement pour suppleer aux def'auts et negli- 
gences des Prelats, des Pasteurs, des Magistrals, des Juges et 
autres Superieurs Ecclesiastiques et Politiques qui faute de 
s'appliquer assez aux devoirs de leurs charges, obmettent dans les 
occasions beaucoup de bien qu'ils pourroient procurer, et neglig- 
ent de resister a beaucoup de maux, d'abus et d'erreurs qu'ils 
pourroient empeclier ; et que pour remedier a ces manquements, 
il estoit expedient que Dieu suscitat plusieurs gens de bien de 
toutes sortes de conditions qui s'unissent ensemble pour travailler 
a I'avancement du bien qui se peut faire en chaque profession, et 
pour extirper les erreurs, les abus et les vices qui s'y glissent 
souvent, par la negligence ou connivence mesme de ceux qui sont 
le plus obligez par leur ministere d'y donner ordre. 

Et c'est dans cette pensee que ces messieurs croyent avoir 
droit a se mesler de toutes choses, de s'ingerer de toutes lea 
actions un peu eclatantes qui regardent la Religion, de s'ingerer 
en censeurs publics, pour corriger et controller tout ce qui leur 
deplaist, d'entrer et de penetrer dans les secrets des maisons et 
des families particulieres, comme aussi dans la conduite des com- 
munautez Religieuses pour y gouverner toutes choses a leur gre ; 
et bien que ces messieurs soient fort ignorans, bien qu'ils n'ayent 
aucune experience des affaires et qu'ils passent dans le jugement 
de tons ceux qui les connoissent pour personnes qui n'ont qu'un 
Zele impetueux et violent, sans lumieres et sans discretion, neant- 
moins ils presument avoir assez de capacite pour reformer la vie, 
les moeurs, les sentimens et la doctrine de tous les autres. Et 
ce qu'il y a de plus fascheux et de plus dangereux en cela, c'est 
que si on ne defere aveuglement a tous leurs sentimens, si on 
improuve leur conduite et si Ton oppose la moindre resistance a 
leurs entreprises, quoyqu'injustes et violentes, ils unissent toutes 
leurs forces pour les faire reussir et pour cet effet ils reclameut 
les secours de tous ceux qui leur sont unis, a Paris, k Rouen et 
ailleurs, pour decrier, pour diffamer et pour perdre ceux qui leur 
resistent et qui veulent s'opposer au cours de leurs violences et 
de leurs injustice, de sorte qu'on peut assurer arec verite que 
cette compagnie a degener^ en une cabale et en ime faction dan- 
gereuse et pernicieuse, tant a I'Eglise qu'a la Patrie, estant ccirtain 
que depuis peu d'ann^es ils ont excite beaucoup de troubles et de 



APPENDIX. 405 

divisions dans toute la ville de Caen, et notamment dans le clerg^ 
et mesme en plusieurs autres lieux de la Basse-Normandie ainsi 
qu'il paroistra par les articles suivants de ce m^moire. 

II est arrive quelques fois qu'ayant eu de faux avis que d(3S 
maris maltroitoient leurs femmes ou que des femmes n'estoient 
pas fideles a leurs maris ou que des filles ne se gouvernoieut pas 
bien, ils se sent ingerez sur le rapport qui en estoit fait eu IsTir 
assemblee de chercher les moyens de remedier k ces maux, et ila 
en ont choisi de si impertinents et de si indiscrets que cela a este 
capable de causer bien du desordre et de la division dans les 
families et dans toute la ville ; car souvent voulant erapescher 
une legei'e faute, on en fait naistre de grands scandales, lorsque 
Ton agit par emportement plustost que par prudence. 

Ce n'est pas seulement dans les families particulieres qu'ils 
s'introduisent pour en fureter les secrets, pour en connoitre les 
defauts et pour en usurper la direction et le gouvernement, mais 
encore dans les maisons Religieuses, dont les unes se sont sou- 
mises a leur domination, comma les Ursulines de Caen, les 
moynes de I'Abbaye d'Ardenne de I'ordre de Premontr^, proche 
de cette ville et depuis pen les filles de Sainte-Marie ; et les 
autres leur ay ant tesmoigne quelque resistance, ils ont employ d 
toute leur Industrie pour en venir k bout ; et oil I'artifice a man- 
que, ils y ont adjoute les violences et les menaces 

Mais il ne faut point chercher de marques plus visibles de la 
perseverance, pour mieux dire du progres de ces faux ermites 
dans leurs emportemens que ce qu'ont fait cet hiver passe cinq 
jeunes hommes nourris en I'Hermitage et eleves sous la direc- 
tion et discipline du feu Sieur de Bernieres. On leur avoit si 
bien imprime dans I'esprit que tout estoit reinpli de Jans^nistea 
dans la ville de Caen, et que les curez en estoient les fauteurs et 
protecteurs, qu'un d'entre eux s'imagina que Dieu I'inspiroit forte- 
ment advertir le peuple de Caen que les curez estoient des fau- 
teurs d'Heretiques et par consequent des excomuniez ; et ayant 
persuade a ses compagnons d'annoncer publiquement a toute la 
ville ce crime pretendu des Curez d'une maniere qui touchast le 
peuple et qui fut capable de I'exciter centre ces Pasteurs, Us 
r^solurent de faire cette publication le mercredi quatrieme da 
mois de Febvrier dernier, et jugerent que pour se disposer k 
executer dignement ce que Dieu leur avoit inspire, il falloit faire 



406 APPENDIX. 

ensemble une communion extraordinaire, immddiatement avant 
que de I'entreprendre. lis assisterent done pour cet effet et dans 
la paroisse de Saint-Ouen a la messe d'un prestre qu'on dit estre 
de leur cabale, et communierent tous cinq de sa main ; et aprea 
leur communion, le plus zele mit bas son pourpoint et le laissa 
avec son chapeau dans I'Eglise ; et accompagne des quatre autres 
qui le suivoient sans chapeaux, sans colets et le pourpoint 
deboutonne, non-obstant la rigueur extreme du froid ; ils mar- 
cherent en cet Equipage par toute la ville, annon9ant a haute 
voix que les curez de Caen a I'exception de deux qu'ils nom- 
moient etoient fauteurs de Jansenistes et excommuniez, parce 
qu'ils avoient signe un acte devant I'ofRcial de Caen, ou ils 
Qttestent qu'ils ne connoissent point de Jansenistes dans la dite 
ville et repetoient cet advertissement de dix pas en dix pas, ce 
qui emeut toute la ville et attira a leur suite une grande multi- 
tude de populace qui se persuadant que ces gens estoient envoyes 
de Dieu pour leur donner cet advertissement, temoignoient desja 
de I'emotion contre les curez. Mais les magistrats qui estoient 
alors au siege en ayant est^ advertis, ils envoyerent leurs huissiers 
pour les arrester et les emmener, et ayant est^ interrogez par le 
juge sur le sujet d'une action si extraordinaire, ils respondirent 
hardiment qu'ils I'avoient entreprise pour le service de Dieu et 
qu'ils estoient prests de soufFrir la mort pour soustenir la verite 
de ce qu'ils annon^oient, qu'ils avoient connoissance certaine 
qu'il y avoit grand nombre de Jansenistes en la ville de Caen, et 
que les curez s'en estoient declarez les fauteurs, par la declara- 
tion qu'ils avoient dounee qu'ils n'en connoissoient point ; ensuitte 
de quoy quatre d'entre eux furent renvoyez en prison et le 
cinquieme fut mis entre les mains de ses parents sur une attesta- 
tion que donnerent les medecins qu'il estoit hypocoudriaque et 
pen de jours apres le lieutenant criminel ayant instruit le procez, 
les quatre prisonniers furent condamnez a cent livres d'amende ; 
il leur fut deffendu et a tous autres de s'assem'bler ni d'exciter 
aucun scandale, il fut ordonn^ qu'ils seroient mis entre les mains 
de leur parents pour s'en charger et en faire bonne et seure 
garde, avec deffense de les laisser entrer dans la ville et aux 
feuxbourgs, sur peines au cas appartenantes. . . . 

Car de quelles entreprises ne sont pas capables des personnea 
d'esprit faible et d'humeur atrabilaire que d'aUlevu-s ©d a des- 



APPENDIX. 407 

86chees par ties jeunes, des veilles et d'autres austeritez continu- 
elles et par des meditations de trois ou qiiatre heureh par jour, 
lorsque I'on ne les entretient presque d'autre chose, si iion que 
leur Religion et I'Eglise sont en un tres grand danger de se 
perdre, par la faction et la conspiration des Jansenistes lesquels 
on leur represente dans les livres, dans les sermons et dans les 
conferences, comme des gens qui veulent renverser les fonde- 
ments de la Religion et de la Piete Ghrestienne, qui veulent 
detruire le mystere de I'lncarnation, qui ne croyent point k la 
Transubstantation ni I'lnvocation des Saints, ni les Indulgences, 
qui veulent abolir le sacrifice de la messe et le sacrement de la 
Penitence, qui combattent la devotion et la culte de la Sainte- 
Vierge, qui nient le franc arbitre et qui substituent en sa place le 
destin et la fatalite des Turcs, et enfin qui machinent la ruine de 
I'authorite des Souverains Pontifes. Qu'y a-t-il de plus ais6 
que d'animer les esprits imbeciles d'eux mesmes et prevenus de 
ces fausses imaginations contre des Evesques, des Docteurs, des 
Curez, et contre d'autres personnes tres vertueuses et tres catho- 
liques, lorsqu'on leur fait croire que toutes ces personnes con- 
spirent a establir une heresie abominable 1 



B. 

LAVAL AND ARGENSON. 
Lettre de l'Evesqtte de Petree a M. d'Argenson, FniiBit 

DU GotrVERNEUR. 

(Exirait.) Papiers d^Argenson. 

Jai regeu dans mon entree dans le pays de Monsieur votre 
frere toutes les marques d'une bienveillance extraordinaire ; iay 
fait mon possible pour la recongnoistre et luy ay rendu tous les 
respects que je dois a une personne de sa vertu et de son merite 
joint a la qualite qu'il porte ; comme son plus veritable amy et 
fidelle serviteur iay cru estre obligd de luy donner un advis im- 
portant pour le bien de I'Eglise et qui luy devoit estre utile s'il 
I'eust pris dans la mesme disposition que ie suis asseur^ que voua 
I'auries receu ; cestoit seul a seul a cceur ouvert avec marques 



408 APPENDIX. 

assez ^videntes que ce que ie luy disois estoit vray veu qu'd 
estoit fonde sur des sentimeas que i'avois veu moy mesme pa- 
roistre en diverses assemblees publiques ; cependant il ne fist 
que trop congnoistre qu'il ne trouvoit. auqunnement bon que 
ie luy donnaisses cet advertissement et me voullut faire em- 
brasser Ie party de ceux qui avaient tout subject de se plaindra 
de son precede envers eux, mais que je ne pretendois auqunne- 
ment justifier n'en ayant auqunne plainte de leur part pour lu^ 
faire et d'ailleurs estans asses desinteresses ; vous pouvez bien 
iuger quels sent ceux dont ie veux parler sans vous les uommer 
puisque vous mesme qui avez une affection sincere et bien reglee 
pour ces dignes ouvriers evangeliques m'avez avoue que vous 
aviez douUeur de Ie voir partir dans les sentiments ou il estoit a 
leur esgard sans beaucoup de fondement du moins suffisamment 
recongneu pour lors ; ce que ie luy dis avoir sceu de vous pour 
ne rien omettre de ce que je me persuadois qui estoit capable de 
lui faire avouer une verite qui nestoit que trop appareute, ce qui 
devoit un peu Ie calmer son esprit sembla I'aigrir et se fascha de 
ce que vous m'aviez faict cette ouverture, ie ne scais depuis ce 
qu'il a pens^ de moy, mais il semble que je luy sois suspect et 
qu'il aye cru que i'embrasse la cause de ces bons serviteurs de 
Dieu a son preiudice, mais ie puis bien asseurer qu'ils n'ont pour 
luy que des sentimens de respect et que la plus forte passion que 
iaye est de Ie voir dans une parfaite union et intelligence aveo 
eux. 
QuEBBc ce 20 Octobre 1659. _ 

Lettee de M. d'Argenson, 1660. 

(Extrait.) Papiers d^Argenson. 

Monsieur de Petree a une telle adherence k ses sentiments et 
un zele qui Ie porte souvent hors du droict de sa charge qu'il ne 
faict aucune difficulte d'empieter sur Ie pouvoir des aultres et 
avec tant de chaleur qu'il n'ecoute personne. II enleva ces jours 
derniers une fille servente d'un habitant d'icy, et la mit de son 
autoiite dans les Hursulines sur Ie seul pretexte qu'il vouloit la 
faire instruire, et par la il priva cet habitant du s^ervice qu'il pr^- 
tendoit de sa servente qui luy avoit faict beaucoup de depense a 
amener de France. Cet habitant est Mf Denis lequel ne cognoia- 



APPENDIX. 409 

Bant pas qui I'avoit soubstret me presenta requests pour I'avoir. 
Je garde [5^c] la requeste sans la repondre trois jours pour em- 
pescher I'eclat de cette affaire. Le R. P. Lalement avec lequel 
j'en communique et lequel blasma fort le procede de Mf de Pe- 
tree s'employa de tout son pouvoir pour la faire rendre sans bruit 
et n'y gaigna rien, si bien que je fus oblige de repondre la re 
queste et de permettre a cet habitant de reprendre sa servente 
oil il la trouveroit, et si je n'eusse insinue soubs main d'accom- 
moder cette affaire et que I'habitant a qui on refusa de la rendre 
I'eut poursuivi en justice j'eusse este oblige de la luy rendre et de 
pousser tout avec beaucoup de scandal et cela (a cause de) la 
volonte de Mr de Petree qui diet qu'un evesque peult fe quHl 
veult, et ne menace que dexcommunication. 

Lettre de M. d'Argbnson. 

(Extraits.) Papiers d^Argenson. 

Kebec le 7 Juillet, 1660. 
Mf de Petree a faist naistre cette contestation et ie puis dire 
aaec verite que son zele en plusieurs rencontres approche fort 
d'une grande atacbe a son sentiment et d'empietement sur la 
charge des aultres comme vous le verrez par un billet icy joint. 
. . . De toutes ces contestations que i'ay eu auec Mf de Petree 
i'ay tousjours faist le R. P. Lalemand m^diateur ; c'est une per- 
sonne d'un si grand merite et d'un sens si acheve que ie pense 
qu'on ne peult rien y adjouter ; il seroit bien h souhaiter que 
touts ceux de sa maison suivissent ses sentiments ; ils ne se mes- 
leroient pas de censurer plusieurs choses comme ils font et lais- 
seroient le gouvernement des affaires a ceux que Dieu a ordonnd 
pour cela. 



c. 

PERONNE DUMESNIL. 

Lb Sieue Gaudais du Pont a Monseigneur de Colbbbt. 1664. 

(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

QuELQUE 7 ou 8 jours apres I'etablissement du Conseil Sou- 
7erain, en consequence dos lettres patentes de Sa majesty, le 



ilO APPENDIX. 

Procureur General du dit Conseil jugeant qu'il etait de sa 
charge de reprendre les (papiers) de cette plainte pour ne pas 
laisser un tel attentat impuni, fit sa requete verbale au dit Con- 
seil tendante a ce qu'il lui fut donne commission pour informer 
centre le dit Sieur Du Mesnil ; et que si le dit Sieur Du Mesnil, 
avait avis de la dite commission qu'il ne manquerait pas de 
ietourner ces dits papiers, demandant qu'il lui fut permis de 
saisir et de sequestrer ici et apposer le sceau au coffre ou 
armoire en laquelle se trouveraient les dits papiers, et pour 
ce faire qu'il plut au dit Conseil nommer tel Commissaire qu'il 
jugerait a propos. Le dit Conseil enterinant la requete du dit 
Procureur General, uomma le Sieur de Villeray, pour, en la 
presence du dit Procureur General et assistance de son GrefBer 
vaquer h la dite information, &c. 

Et d'autant que le dit Sieur Du Mesnil etait estime homme 
violent et qu'il pourrait faire quelque boutade, pour donner main 
forte a la justice, Mr. le Gouverneur fut prie par les dits Con- 
seillers de faire escorter le dit Sieur Commissaire par quelque 
nombre de soldats. 

Le dit Sieur de Villeray assiste, comme dit est pour I'execu- 
tion de sa commission, se transporta au logis du dit Sieur Du 
Mesnil, laissant a quartier I'escorte de soldats pour s'en servir on 
cas de besoin. 

Le dit Sieur Du Mesnil ne trompa pas I'opinion que Ton 
avait eue de sa violence, fit grand bruit, cria aux voleurs, voulant 
emouvoir son voisinage, outrageant d'injures les dits Sieurs de 
Villeray et Procureur General au grand m^pris de I'autorite du 
Conseil, refusant meme de le reconnaitre. Ce qui n'empecha 
pas le dit Sieur de Villeray d'executer sa commission de saisir 
les papiers du dit Sieur Du Mesnil, qui en donna la clef, y fit 
apposer le sceau et icelui sequestrer es mains d'un voisin du dit 
Sieur Du Mesnil et de son consentement. 

Le lendemain le dit Sieur de Villeray rapporta son proces 
verbal au dit conseil, atteste du dit Procureur General, et signe 
du Greflfier du dit Conseil et sur les injures, violences et irreve- 
rences y contenues tant contre le dit Sieur Commissaire que 
I'autorite du Conseil, fit decerner un decret de prise de corps 
contre le dit Sieur Du Mesnil. dont j'empechai I'execution. 



APPENDIX. 41i 

Mbmoirb de Dumesnil concernant les affaires du Canada. 
{Extrait. ) Archives de la Marine. 

10 Sei'tembre, 1671 

Les dits Sieurs de Mesy, Gouverneur, de Petrde, Eveque, et 
Dupoiit Gaudais, arrives au dit Quebecle 16* jour de Septembre 
1663, furent le lendemain salues et visites par le dit Du Mesnil 
precedent juge, lequel par devoir et civility leur dit par forme 
d'avis que par des arrets du conseil du Roi, qu'il leur represeuta 
en date du 27 Mars 1647 et 13 Mai 1659 tous les commis et 
receveurs des dits deniers publics etaient exclus de toutes 
charges publiques, jusqu'k ce qu'ils eussent rendu et assure leurs 
comptes, et le nomme Villeray chasse du conseil de la traite 
pour J avoir entre par voies et moyens illicites ; et ordonn^ qu'il 
viendrait en France pour le purger de ses crimes ; ce qu'il n'a 
pas fait, et pour nommer les autres commis, receveurs, auxquels 
il aurait commence a faire le proces pendant qu'il etait juge. 

Nonobstant lesquels dires, actes et arrets represent^s, les dits 
Sieurs de Mesy, Eveque de Petrde, et Dupont Gaudais, n'ont 
delaisse de prendre et admettre avec eux au dit Conseil Sou- 
verain les dits comp tables ; lesquels par ce moyen se prdtendent 
h couvert et exempts de rendre les dits comptes. Le dit etablisse- 
ment de conseil fait et an-et^ par les dits Commissaires le 18 
du mois de Septembre, deux jours apres leur arriv^e ; et pour 
Procureur General prennent un nomme Jean Bourdon, boulanger 
et cannonier au fort et aussi comptable de 8 a 900,000 livres, 
comme il sera montre et qu'il a prete son nom. 

Le 20 du mois de Septembre, deux jours apres I'etablissement 
du dit conseil, les dits Villeray soi-disant conseiller et commis- 
saire et Bourdon, Procureur General accompagnes de deux ser- 
gents, d'un serrurier et de dix soldats du fort, bien armes vont 
en la maison du dit Du Mesnil, Intendant et Controleur General, 
et peu auparavant leur juge souverain, sur les 7 a 8 heures du 
soir pour piller sa maison ; ce qu'ils firent ; ayant fait rompre 
la porte de son cabinet, ses armoires et un cofFret ; pris et em- 
porte ce qu'ils ont trouve dedans et notamment tous ses papiers 
dans lesquels etaient leurs proces presqi/e faits, et les preuves de 
leurs peculats, concussions et malversations, sans aucun inventaire 
ni forme de justice, etant le dit Du Mesnil, lors des dites vie- 



4:12 APPENDIX. 

lences, term et arrgt^ sur un si^ge et nidement traite par les sol- 
dats jnsques k rempScher d'appeler du secours et des temoina 
pour voir ce qui se passait en sa maison et comme il dtait li4 et 
arrgte. 

Cette action violente ainsi faite et le dit Du Mesnil se voyant 
delivre du massacre de sa personne dont il etait menace, et d'etre 
assassine comme son fils s'en va trouver le dit Sieur Dupont 
Gaudais prenant quality d'Intendant pour lui en faire plainte, 
qu'il ne voulut entendre, disant que c'etait de son ordonnance et 
du dit Conseil que la dite action et prise de papiers avait ete 
faite; a quoi le dit Du Mesnil repartit qu'il s'en plaindrait au 
Roi, et lui en demanderait justice, ce qui obligea le dit Dupont 
Gaudais de dire au dit Du Mesnil qu'il donnat sa requete; ce 
qui fut fait, et sur laquelle fut par le dit Conseil ordonn^ le 22 
du dit mois de Septembre, deux jours apres cette violence que 
le dit Dupont Gaudais serait commissaire pour verifier les faits 
d'icelle requete ; ce que poursuivant le dit Du Mesnil, U eut 
ordre verbal du dit Sr. Gaudais de mettre au Greffe ses causes 
et moyens de recusation, de nullite de prise k partie et de de- 
mandes ; ce que le dit Du Mesnil fit comme appert par I'acte 
signe du Greffier du dit Conseil du 28 du dit mois de Septembre 
sur lesquelles recusations, prises h partie et demandes, le difc 
Conseil n'a rien voulu ordonner, comme appert par autre acte 
du dit Greffier du 21 Octobre ensuivant, jour ordonn^ pour 
i'embarquement et depart des vaisseaux du dit Quebec pour 
retourner en France. 

Mais au lieu de statuer et ordonner sur les faits, moyens et 
conclusions du dit Du Mesnil, le dit Conseil sans plainte, sans 
partie et sans information a dresse emprisonnement du dit 
Du Mesnil et cache le d^cret sans le mettre au Greffe dans 
I'intention de le faire paraitre et executer du m§me temps que 
le dit Du Mesnil se voudrait embarquer pour revenir en 
France, afin qu'il n'eut pas le temps de donner avis des vio- 
lences qu'on lui faisait : de quoi averti il s'embarqua quel- 
ques jours auparavant les autres et fut re9u par le Capitaine 
Gardeur dans son navire, nonobstant les defenses qui lui en 
avaient ^t^ faites par le dit nouveau Conseil et que six pieces de 
canon de la plate forme d'en bas fussent pointees contre sod 
navire pour le faire obdir k leurs ordonnances. 



APPENDIX. 413 

Tous ces massacres, assassins et pillages n'ont ete fails an dit 
Du MesnU, Intendant, par les dits comp tables, ordonnateurs et 
preneurs de bien public et leurs parents et allies que pour taoiier 
a couvrir et s'exempter de compter, payer et rendre ce qu'ils ont 
i)ill^, savoir 



LAVAL AND MfiSY. 
Ubdbb de M? d£ Mesy de faire sommation a l'Evequb 

DE PeTREE. 

(Extrait.) Registre du Conseil Superieur. 

13 Fevrier, 1664. 
Le Sieur d'Angoville, Major de la Garnison entretenue par le 
Roi dans le Fort de S! Louis a Quebec pays de la Nouvelle 
France, est commande par nous Sieur de Mesy, Lieutenant 
General et Gouverneur pour Sa Majeste dans toute I'etendue dn 
dit pays, aUer dire et avertir Monsieur I'Eveque de Petree etanl 
presentement dans la chambre qui servait ci-devant aux Assem 
blees du Conseil au dit pays, que les Sieurs nommes pour Con- 
seillers et le Sieur Bourdon pour Procureur du Roi au dit 
conseil a la persuasion du dit Sieur de Petree qui les connaissait 
entierement ses creatures s'etant voulu rendre les maitres de- 
clares et portes en diverses manieres dans le dit Conseil centre 
les Interets du Roi et du public pour appuyer et autoriser les in- 
terets d'autrui en particulier, il leur a ete commande par notre 
ordre pour la conservation des interets du Roi en ce pays, de 
s'absenter du dit Conseil jusqu'a ce que a notre diligence par le 
rstom- des premiers vaisseaux qui viendront, Sa Majeste ait ete 
informee de leur conduite, et qu'ils se soient justifies des cabales 
qu'ils ont formees, fomentees et entretenues contre leur devoir et 
le serment de fidelite qu'ils etaient obliges de garder a Sa dite 
Majeste. 

Priant le dit Sieur Eveque acquiescer a la dite mterdiction 
pour le bien du service du Roi, et vouloir proceder par I'avi* 



414 APPENDIX. 

d'une Assemblee publique a nouvelle nomination des Conseillere 
en la place des dits Sieurs Interdits pour pouvoir rendre la jus- 
tice aux peuples et habitants de ce pays, Declarant que nous 
Sieur de Mesy ne pouvons en nommer aucun de notre part en 
la fagon en laquelle nous avons ete surpris par notre facilite lors 
de la premiere nomination manque d'une parfaite connaissance, 
et que s'il est fait quelque chose au prejudice de cet avertisse- 
ment par aucun des dits Conseillers interdits, ils seront traitea 
comma d^sobeissants, fomenteurs de rebellions et contraires au 
repos public. 

(Sign^) «MisY." 

KeFONSB be l'EvEQUB de FEXBiiE. 

Registre du ConseU Superieur. 

16 Fbv. 1664. 

Laissant a part les paroles offensives et accusations injuri- 
euses qui me regardent dans raflfiche mise au son du tambour le 
treiziemA de cc mois de Fevrier, au poteau public, dont je pre- 
tends me justifier devant Sa Majeste je reponds a la priere que 
Monsieur le Gouverneur m'y fait d'agreer I'interdiction des per- 
sonnes qui y sont comprises, et de vouloir proceder a la nomi- 
nation d'autres Conseillers ou Officiers et ce par I'avis d'une 
assemblee publique, que ni ma conscience ni mon honneur, ni le 
respect et obeissance que je dois aux volont^s et commande- 
ments du Roi, ni la fidelite et I'affection que je dois a son ser- 
vice ne me le permettent aucunement jusques k ce que dans un 
jugement legitime les desnommes dans la susdite affiche soient 
cenvaincus des crimes dont on les y accuse. 

A Quebec ce seizieme Fevrier mil-six-cent-soixante-quatre. 

(Sign^) "FRAN901S," EvEQUE DE Quebec. 

Enregistr^ a la requite de Mgr. I'Eveque de Petree ce 16 
Fevrier 1664 par moi Secretaire au Conseil Souverain sous- 

Hign^. 

(Sign^) Peuveet, Secret" 

avec paraphe 



APPENDIX. 416 

Lettre db Mest AUX JtsUITES. 
( Extrait.) Collection de I' Abbe Ferland. 

Comme aiusi soit que la gloire de Dieu, le service du Roi et le 
service du public nous aient engages de venir en ce pays pour y 
rencontrer notre salut par la sollicitation de M. I'Eveque de 
Petree qui nous a fait agreer au Roi pour avoir I'honneur d'etre 
son Lieutenant Gondral et Gouverneiir de toute la Nouvelle 
France, repr^senter sa personne dans le Conseil Souverain qu'il 
a etabli dans ce dit pays pour exercer la justice, police et finance, 
ce qui nous tient lieu d'obligation vers mon dit Sieur I'Eveque 
pour lui donner des marques de reconnaissance en toutes ren- 
contres. A quoi nous sommes aussi obliges par son merite par- 
ticulier et par le respect qui est d<i a son caractere, mais qui ne 
doit entrer en nulle consideration pour le regard du service et 
de la fidelite que nous sommes oblige de rendre a S. M. ; n'etant 
pas ni de notre conscience ni de notre bonneur d'avoir accept^ la 
commission dont il nous a honor^, pour n'en pas faire le deub de 
notre cbarge et de trabir les interets de Sa dite Majesty ; lui en 
ayant fait le serment de fidelity entre ses mains et d'en avoir 
regu le commandement par sa boucbe. Pourquoi ayant rencon- 
tre plusieurs pratiques que nous avons cru en conscience par de- 
voir etre oblige d'en empecher la suite, nous aurions fait publier 
notre declaration du 13* jour de Fdvrier dernier, et ne I'ayant 
pu faire faire sans y iuteresser le S' Eveque, notre dite declara- 
tion nous fait passer dans son esprit et de tons Messieurs lea 
Ecclesiastiques qui considerent ce point d'une pretendue offense 
sans avoir egard aucunement aux interets du Roy pour un calom- 
niateur, mauvais juge, un ingrat et conscience erronnee et plu- 
sieurs autres termes injurieux qui se publient journellement 
centre I'autorite du Roy, en faisant un point de rejjrobation de 
la dite pretendue offense, un des principaux nous etant venu 
avertir que Ton nous pourrait faire fermer la porte des Eglises 
et nous empecber de recevoir les S*^ Sacrements, si nous ne r^pa- 
rions la dite pretendue offense, ce qui nous donne un scrupule en 
I'ame ; et de plus ne pouvant nous adresser pour nous en ^clair- 
cir qu'a des personnes qui se declarent nos parties et qui jugent 
du fait sans en savoir la cause ; mais n'y ayant rien de si impor- 
tant au monde que le salut et la fidelity que nous devons garder 



416 APPENDIX. 

pour les int^rets du Roi que nous tenons insei)arablea Tun de 
I'autre, et reconnaissant qu'il n'y a rien de si certain que la mort 
at rien de si inconnu que I'lieure, et que le temps est long pour 
informer Sa Majeste de ce qui se passe, pour en recevoir ses 
ordres, et qu'en attendant, une ame est toujours dans la craintd 
quoiqu'elle se connaisse dans I'innocence, nous sommes obligd 
avoir neanmoins recours aux Reverends Peres Casuistes de la 
maison de Jesus pour nous dire en leur conscience ce que nous 
pouvons pour la decharge de la notre et pour garder la fid^lite - 
que nous devons avoir pour le service du Roi, les priant qu'ils 
aient agr^able signer ce qu'ils jugeront au bas de cet ^crit, afin 
de nous servir de garantie vers sa Majesty. 

Fait au Chateau de Quebec, ce dernier jour de Fevrier, 
1664. 

« MisY " 



E. 

MARRIAGE AND POPULATION. 

Lbttee db Colbert a Talon. 

(ExtraitJ) Archives de la Marine, 

Paris, 20 Fevrier, IbbS 
Sa Majesty a fait une gratification de 1500 livres a M' da 
Lamotte, 1" Capitaine au Regiment de Carignan-Salieres, tani 
en consideration du service qu'il rend en Canada, de la construc- 
tion des forts et de ses expeditious qui out et^ faites contre les 
Iroquois, que du manage qu'il a contract^ dans le pays, et de la 
resolution qu'il a prise de s'y habituer. EUe a ordonne de plus 
la somme de 6000 livres pour etre distributes aux officiers des 
memes troupes, ou qui s'y sont deja mari^s ou qui s'y marieront 
afln de leur donner des moyens de s'etablir et de mieux s'afFermir 
dans la pens^e ou ils sont de ne pas revenir en France. EUe 
fait un autre fond de 12,000 livres pour etre distribue aux sol 
data qui resteront aux pays et qui s'y marieront, autres que 
ceux des quatre compagnies qu'elle y laisse, ces derniers ^tant 
entretenus par le paiement de leur solde .... 1200 livres pour 



APPENDIX. 417 

celui des meilleurs habitants qui a 15 enfauts, et 800 livres pour 
I'autre qui en a dix. Elle a aussi gratifie M. I'Evequede Petr^e 
d'une somme de 6000 livres pour continuer a I'assister pour sou- 
tenir sa dignity, fournir aux besoins de son Eglise et de sou 
seminaire, et enfin 40,000 livres pour etre employees k la levee 
de 150 hommes et de 50 filles depuis 16 jusqu'a 30 ans et non 
au dela ; outre 235 que la Compagnie y fait passer cette annee, 
et qui devaient y etre passees I'annce derniere ; 12 Ca vales, 
2 etalons, 2 gros anes de Mirbelais et 50 • brebis ; h quoi Ton 
travaille dans les provinces du royaume, et Ton n'oublie rien 
pour Tembarquement partant de la Rochelle vers la fin du mois 
procbain. 

. . . . Je vous prie de bien falre considerer k tout le pays que 
leur bien, leur subsistance, et tout ce qui pent les regarder de 
plus pres depend d'une resolution publique a laquelle ii ne soit 
jamais contrevenu de marier les gardens a 18 ou 19 ans, et lea 
filles a 14 ou 15 ans; que les oppositions de n'avoir pas suffi- 
samment pour vivre doivent etre rejetees, parceque dans ces pays 
et le Canada premierement ou tout le monde travaille, il se 
produit pour tons la subsistance et que I'abondance ne peut 

jamais leur venir que par I'abondance des hommes H 

serait bon de rendre les charges et servitudes doubles k I'egard 
des gargons qui ne se marieraient point a cet age . . . . et a 
regard de ceux qui sembleraient avoir absolument renonce au 
mariage, il serait a propos de leur augmenter les charges, de les 
priver de tous honneurs, meme d'y ajouter quelque marque 
d'infamie. 

.... Bien que le Royaume de France soit autant peuple 
qu'aucim pays du monde, il est certain qu'il serait difficile d'en- 
tretenir de grandes armees et de faire passer en meme temps de 

grandes Colonies dans les pays ^loignes 11 faut done se 

r^duire k tirer seulement chaque ann^e avec precaution un 
nombre d'habitants de I'un et de I'autre sexe, pour les envoyer 
au Canada, et fonder principalement I'angmentation de la colonie 
8ur I'augmentation des manages, k mesure que le nombre dea 
oolons augmentera. 



27 



418 APPENDIX. 



Lettee de Talon a Colbert. 
(Extrait.^ Archives de la Marine. 

10 NOVEMBRE, 1670. 

. . . . De toutes les filles venues cette annee au nombre de 
1 65, il n'en reste pas 30 a marier. Apres que les soldats venu8 
cette annee auront travaille a faire une habitation, ils se porte- 
ront au mariage ; pour quoi il serait bon qu'il plut a Sa Majest« 
d'envoyer encore 150 a 200 filles. 

.... II serait boa de recommander que les filles destinees k 
ce pays ne soient uulleinent disgraciees de la nature, qu'elles 
n'aient rien de rebuttant a I'ext^rieur ; qu'elles soient saines et 
fortes pour le travail de campagne, ou dumoins qu'elles aient 
quelqu'industrie pour les ouvrages de main. 

.... Trois ou quatre filles de naissance et distinguees par 
la qualite serviraient peut-etre utilement a lier par le mariage 
des officiers qui ne tiennent au pays que par les appointements 
et I'emolument de leurs terres, et qui par la disproportion des 
conditions ne s'engagent pas davantage. Si le Roi fait passer 
d'autres filles ou femmes veuves de I'Ancienne a la Nouvelle- 
France, il est bon de les faire accompagner d'un certificat de leur 
Cure ou du juge du lieu qui fasse counaitre qu'elles sont libres 
et en etat d'etre mariees, sans quoi les Ecclesiastiques d'ici fon. 
difiiculte de leur conferer ce sacrement ; a la verite ce n'est pas 
sans raison, 2 ou 3 doubles manages s'etant reconnus ici ; on 
pourrait prendre la m8me precaution pour les hommes veufs 

Lettre de Talon a Colbert. • 
(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

2 Novembre, 1671 
.... Le nombre des enfants nes cette annee est de 6 a 700. 
.... J'estime qu'il n'est plus necessaire de faire passer des 
demoiselles, en ayant regu cette annee quinze ainsi qualifiees au 
lieu de quatre que je demandais pour faire des alliances avec les 
officiers ou les principaux habitants d'ici 



APPENDIX. 419 

F. 

CHATEAU ST. LOUIS. 

This structure, destined to be famous in Canadian history, 
was originally built by Samuel de Champlain. The cellar still 
remains, under the wooden platform of the present Durham 
Terrace. Behind the chateau was the area of the fort, now 
an open square. In the most famous epoch of its history, the 
time of Frontenac, the chateau was old and dilapidated, and 
the fort was in a sad condition. " The walls are all down," 
writes Frontenac in 1681 ; "there are neither gates nor guard- 
house ; the whole place is open." On this the new intendant, 
Meules, was ordered to report what repairs were needed. Mean- 
while La Barre had come to replace Frontenac, whose com 
plaints he repeats. He says that the wall is in ruin for a 
distance of a hundred and eighty toises. "The workmen ask 
6000 francs to repair it. I could get it done in France for 
2000. The cost frightens me. I have done nothing." (Za Barre 
mi Ministre, 1682.) Meules, however, received orders to do 
what was necessary ; and, two years later, he reports that he 
has rebuilt the wall, repaired the fort, and erected a building, 
intended at first for the council, within the area. This building 
stood near the entrance of the present St. Louis Street, and was 
enclosed by an extension of the fort wall. 

Denonville next appears on the scene, with his usual disposi 
tion to fault-finding. The so-called chateau, he says (1685) is 
built of wood, " and is dry as a match. There is a place where 
with a bundle of straw it could be set on fire at any time ; . • . 
some of the gates will not close ; there is no watch-tower, and 
no place to shoot from." {^Denonville au Ministre, 20 Aout, 
1685.) 

When Frontenac resumed the government, he was much 
disturbed at the condition of the chateau, and begged for slate 
to cover the roof, as the rain was coming in everywhere. At 
the same time the intendant, Champigny, reports it to be rotten 
and ruinous. This was in the year made famous by the English 
attack, and the dramatic scene in the hall of the old building 



420 APPENDIX 

when Frontenac defied the envoy of Admiral Pliipps, whosy 
fleet lay in the river below. In the next summer, 1691, Fron- 
tenac again asks for slate to cover the roof, and for 1 5,000 or 
20,000 francs to repair his mansion. In the next year the king 
promises to send him 12,000 francs, in instalments. Frontenac 
acknowledges the favor ; and says that he will erect a new build- 
ing, and try in the mean time not to be buried under the old one, 
as he expects to be every time the wind blows hard. {Fron- 
tenac au Mlnistre, 15 Sept., 1692.) A misunderstanding with 
the intendant, who had control of the money, interrupted the 
work. Frontenac writes the next year that he had been obliged 
to send for carpenters, during the night, to prop up the chateau, 
lest he should be crushed under the ruins. The wall of the fort 
was however strengthened, and partly rebuilt to the height of 
sixteen feet, at a cost of 13,629 francs. It was a time of war, 
and a fresh attack was expected from the English. {Fron- 
tenac et Ghampigny au Ministre, 4 Mov., 1693.) In the year 
1854, the workmen employed in demolishing a part of this wall, 
adjoining the garden of the chateau, found a copper plate bear- 
ing an inscription in Latin as follows : " In the year of Redemp- 
tion 1693, under the reign of the most august, most invincible, 
and most Christian King of France, Louis the Great, fourteenth 
of that name, the most excellent Louis de Buade, Count of Fron- 
tenac, governor for the second time of all New France, seeing 
that the rebellious inhabitants of New England, who three years 
ago were repulsed, routed, and completely vanquished by him 
when they besieged this town of Quebec, are threatening to renew 
the siege this very year, has caused to be built, at the expense of 
the king, this citadel, with the fortifications adjoining thereto, 
for the defence of the country, for the security of tlie people, and 
for confounding yet again that nation perfidious alike towards its 
God and its lawful king. And he [^Frontenac'] has placed here 
this first stone." 

A year later, the rebuilding of the chateau was begun iu 
earnest. Frontenac says that nothing but a miracle has saved 
him from being buried under its ruins ; that he has pulled every 
thing down, and begun again from the foundation, but that the 
money has given out. [Frontenac au Ministre, 4 Nov., 1694.) 
Accordingly, he and the intendant sold six licenses for the fiir 



APPENDIX. 421 

trade; but at a rate unusually low, for they bi ought only 4,400 
francs. The king, hearing of this, sent 6,000 more. Frontenac 
is profuse in thanks ; and at the same time begs for another 
GOOO francs, " to complete a work which is the ornament and 
beauty of the city" (1696). The minister sent 8,000 more, 
which was soon gone ; and Frontenac drew on the royal treas- 
urer for 5,047 in addition. The intendant complains of his 
extravagance, and says that he will have nothing but perfection; 
and that, besides the chateau, he has insisted on building two 
guard-houses, with Mansard roofs, at the two sides of the 
gate. " I must do as he says," adds the intendant, " or there 
will be a quarrel." {Champigny au Ministre, 13 Oct., 1697.) 
In a letter written two days after, Frontenac speaks with great 
complacency of his chateau, and asks for another 6,000 francs 
to finish it. As the case was urgent, he sold six more licenses, 
at 1,000 francs each; but he died too soon to see the completion 
of his favorite work (1698). The new chateau was not finished 
before 1700, and even then it had no cistern. In a pen-sketch 
of Quebec on a manuscript map of 1699, preserved in the Depot 
des Cartes de la Marine, the new chateau is distinctly repre- 
sented. In front is a gallery or balcony, resting on a wall and 
buttresses at the edge of the clifF. Above the gallery is a range 
of high windows along the face of the building, and over these 
a range of small windows and a Mansard roof. In the middle is 
a porch opening on the gallery ; and on the left extends a bat- 
tery, on the ground now occupied by a garden along the brink 
of the clifi\ A water-color sketch of the chateau taken in 1804, 
from the land-side, by William Morrison, Jr., is in my posses- 
sioir. The building appears to have been completely remod- 
elled in the interval. It is two stories in height ; the Mansard 
roof is gone, and a row of attic windows surmounts the second 
story. In 1809 it was again remodelled, at a cost of ten thou- 
sand pounds sterling. A third story was added ; and the build- 
ing, i-esting on the buttresses which still remain under the 
balustrade of Durham Terrace, had an imposing effect when 
seen from the river. It was destroyed by fire in 1834. 



422 APPENDIX 



G. 

TRADE AND INDUSTRY. 

(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

Lbtteb db Dknonville au Ministeb. 

A Quebec le 13 Novembrb, 1686. 
. . J'ai remarque, Monseigneur que les femtnes et fillea, y 
sout assez paresseuses par le manque de menus ouvrages a se 
donner, il y a un peu trop de luxe dans la pauvrete g^nerale de? 
demoiselles ou soi disantes ; les menus ouvrages de capots et de 
chemises de traite les occupent un peu, pendant I'hiver, et lem* 
font gagner quelque chose, mais cela ne dure pas, I'endroit de 
pauvrete de ce pays, est le manque de toilles et de serges ou 
draps, cependant c'est ici le pays du monde le plus propre a 
faire des chanvres, et du fil, et par consequent de la toille, si on 
s'en voulait donner la peine. Mr. Talon s'y est donn^ du soin 
pour cela, aussi y a-t-il une cote qui est celle de Beauprd, ou on 
en fait, mais ce n'est que chez quelques habitaus. J'ai fort 
exorte la dessus tous les peuples d'y travailler, pour y reussir, il 
faut y apporter de la severite et de I'utilite si il y a moyen, ce 
dernier avec le temps et I'industrie arrivera, et le premier de ma 
part ne manquera pas, je n'ai pu avoir d'autre raison, pourquoi 
on ne fkisait point de chanvres, si ce n'est que Ton n'avait pas 
assez de temps, a cause que les saisons de labourer, semer et 
recueillir sont trop courtes, car en ce pays le bled ne se seme 
qu'en Avril et May. Si le Roy voulait acheter les clianvres un 
peu plus cher jusques a, ce que Ton fut en train, cela pourait les 
animer, avec un ordre a chacun d'en fournir une certaine quan- 
tite on pourra les faire agir, si outre cela on avait quelques 
ouvriers tisserands a distribuer par paroisses, et qui ne fussent a 
la charge du peuple que pour leurs nouritures, ce serait uu 
moyen pour faire apprendre aux enfants. Les Cures nous len- 
draient compte du nombre de ceux qui apprendraient k preparer 
la chanvre et fiUasse, et a faire de la toille ; avant que d'en 
venir la il faudrait montrer a filer aux filles et aux femmes, car 
il y en a tres peu, qui sachent tenir le fuseau, c'est en cela que 
les fillea de la congregation de Montreal feront merveilles. D 



APPENDIX. 42iJ 

noue est venu de la part de Mr. Arnoul deux bariques de gi'aine 
de clianvre que je ferai distribuer et dont je me ferai rendre 
pompte. 

Je croyais, Monseigneur, uue ordonnance necessaire encore a 
faire pour engager cliaque habitant a avoir deux ou trois brebis, 
n'j en ayant pas suffisament dans le pays. 

.... II n'est pas possible qu'on ne puisse faire une verrerie 
en ce pays, la plus grande affaire sont les ouvriers qui enchdris- 
sent tout car Ton donne ordinairement et communement a 
chaque ouvrier par jour quarente sols nouris, cinquante sols et 
un ecu, et tons ces maraux n'en sont pas plus riches car ils met- 
tent tout a boire. 

Signe: Le M*"'" de Denonville. 



M^MOiBE A Monseigneur lb Makquis db Seignelat, buk 
l'etablissement du commekcb en Canada, peesente pab le3 
SiEURS Chalons et Riverin. 

(^Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

(Joint a la lettre du Sieur de Riverin, du 7 Feveier, 1686.) 
.... ¥n effet si cette colonic n'a pas avance depuis le temps 
de son etablissement, c'est que les habitants qui la composent ou 
par leur negligence ou par leur peu d'experience dans les 
affaires, ou enfin par leur impuissance ne se sont pas mis en 
estat de se s-ervir des avantages qu'elle renferme en elle-mesme, 
et des moyens qu'elle leur fournit pour un commerce solide et 
considerable. 

Car il ne faut pas regarder la traitte des pelleteries a laquelle 
seule on s'est attache jusqu'a present et qui finira avec le temps 
par la destruction des bestes, comme un moyen propre a son 
avancement, au contraire I'exp^rience a fait connoistre qu'elle 
rend les habitans faindans et vagabonds, qu'elle les detourne dj 
la culture des terres, de la pesche, de la navigation et des autrea 
entreprises. 



i24 APPENDIX. 



Memoirs do Sieok de Catalogne, Ing^nieue, snR lbs plans 
DBS habitations et Seigneuries des Gouvernembns de Qhb- 
BEC, DB Montreal et des TROis-RiviiRES. 

(Extrait. ^) Archives de la Marine. 

7 NOVBMBRE, 1712 

Observations sur V etahlissement. — Que par rapport a la 
grande etendue qu'on a donnee h. I'^tablissement, il n'y a pas le 
quart des ouvriers qu'il faudroit pour bien etendre et cultiver le's 
terres. 

Que les laboureurs ne se donnent pas assez de soin pour cul- 
tiver les terres, etant certain que la seEuence d'un minot de ble, 
sem^ sur de la terre cultivee comme en France, produira plus 
que deux autres comme on seme en Canada. 

Que comme les saisons sont trop courtes et souvent tres 
mauvaises, il serait a souhaiter que I'Eglise permit les travaux 
indispensables, que les fetes d'et^ obligent de chomer, ^tant tres 
vrai que depuis le mois de Mai que les semences commencent 
jusques a la fin de Septembre, il n'y a pas 90 journ^es de travail, 
par rapport aux fetes et au mauvais temps. C'est pourtant 
dans cette espace que roule la solidite de cet etablissement. li 
faudrait assujetir les habitans negligens a travailler a la culture 
des terres, en les privant des voyages qui les dispensent de tra- 
vaUler, et cela parce qu'un voyage de deux ou trois mois leur 
produit 30 ou 40 escus en perdant la saison du travaU a la terre, 
qui les fait demeurer en friche. 

Les obliger de semer quantite de chanvre et lin qui vient en 
ce pays plus gros qu'en Europe. Us s'en relachent parceque, 
disent-ils, il y a trop de peine et de soins a le mettre en oeuvre. 
II est vrai qu'il y a peu de gens qui s'entendent et qui le font 
payer bien cher. 

Assujetir les habitans k nourrir et a Clever des betes a cornes, 
au lieu du grand nombre de chevaux qui ruinent le Pacage et 
qui entrainent les habitans a des grosses depenses, tant que pour 
leurs Equipages qui sont fort chers que par la grande quantite de 
fourages et de grains qu'il faut pendant 7 ou 8 mois de Tann^e, 

^ This m^moire is 70 pages in length. 



APPENDIX. 425 

etaut tres vrai que I'eutretieu d'un cheval coute autant que deux 
bceufs. 

Obliger les Seigneurs pour faciliter Tetablissement de leura 
Seigneuries de donuer suifisamment des terres pour commencer 
a un prix modique et a construire des moulins et les commodit^s 
publiques ; plusieurs consomment le tiers de leur temps a aller 
faires leur farines a 15 ou 20 lieues, et que les Seigneurs, des qu« 
les Seigneuries sont etablies, concedent des terres saas que les 
tenanciers soient obliges de payer des rentes qu'apres 6 ans que 
les terres soient en valeur. 

Ordonuer au grand voyer de donner son application a faire 
etablir les chemins et ponts necessaires au public, qui est unf> 
necessite fort essentielle. 

Obliger les habitans ou ceux qui sont en etat, de faire des 
greniers pourque chacun fut en etat de conserver du grain pour 
deux annees ; cela fait une fois, I'abondance se trouvera toujours 
au Canada au lieu que la plupart, faute de cette commodite, en 
manquent tres souvent, etant oblige de le vendre a vil prix. 

Chatier severement tons ceux qui sont convaincus de fraude, 
mauvaise foi et imposture, qui est un mal qui commence a etre 
bien en racine et qui indubitablement le privera de tout com- 
merce, les marchands des iles et de Plaisance s'en etant deja 
plaints. 

Que comme il n'y a pas de notaires dans tons les lieux, que les 
conveiitions et les marches faits en presence de deux temoins 
vaudront pendant un temps fixe. 

II serait a souhaiter que S. M. voulut etablir dans chaque ville 
des conseils a juger sans frais sur le fait du commerce et des 
affaires qui n'entrent pas dans la coutume. Ces sortes de pro- 
cedures aussi bien que les autres, ne prennent aucune fin que 
lorsque les parties n'ont plus d'argent pour plaider, qui est la 
ruine des families 

Engager un certain nombre de gens du pays a etudier le 
pilotage, meme les officiers des troupes, particulierement du 
fleuve St. Laurent qui est tres dangereux, la plupart du temps 
ne se trouvant pas un seul pilote en Canada, et cependant on 
commence a donner dans la construction ; le capitaine du Port 
et M. Duplessis ayant mis un vaisseau de 3 a 400 tonneaux but 
les chantiers. 



42(5 APPENDIX. 

Cong^dier de temps en temps des soldats en leur permettani 
de se marier, apres qu'ils auront un ^tablissement. 

II s'est etabli une coutume dans ce pays autoris^e par la 
magistrat, qui meme ne me parait pas naturelle, de laisser des 
bestiaux a I'abaudon qui la plupart gatent les grains et les 
prairies, n'y ayant presque point de terres closes qui causent des 
contestes et de la mesintelligence entre les voisins ; pour obvier 
k cela il faudrait qu'il y eut des gardiens pour chaque nature 
d'animaux pour les mener dans les communes, car tel qui n'a 
pas un pouce de terre, envoie ses animaux paitre sur les terrea 
de ses voisins, en disaut que I'abandon est donne ; Si S. M. vou- 
lait couper la racine a une p<5piniere de proces et de mesintelli- 
gence entre les Seigneurs et habitans, il serait a souhaiter qu'ejle 
voulut donner une ordonnance tendante a ce que les Seigneuries 
et autres concessions demem'eraient dans les limites qu'elles se 
trouvent a present, sans avoir egard aux titres portes dans les 
contrats, pour la quantite et les rumbs de vent qui y sont an- 
nonces, etant a remarquer que les anciens Seigneurs et habitans 
se sont etablis de bonne foi, que les teri-es ont et6 limitees par 
des arpenteurs peu intelligens, et aujourd'hui que la chicane est 
en vogue, chacun veut suivre les termes de son contrat qui ten- 
dent la plupart a I'impossible. Mr. Raudot a donne une ordon- 
nance a ce sujet pour I'ile de Montreal seulement. 

Comme la plupart des rues de Quebec et de Montreal sont 
souvent impraticables, tant par les rochers que par les bourbiers, 
s'il plaisait a S. M. d'ordonner que les deniers qui proviennent 
des amendes et certaines confiscations seraient employes a lea 
mettre en etat. 

Que la subordination du vassal a son Seigneur n'est point objet 
k . Cette erreur vient qu'il a ^t^ accord^ des Sei- 

gneuries a des roturiers qui n'ont pas su maintenir le droit que la 
raison leur donne a I'egard de leur co-sujets, meme les officiers 
de milicc qui leur sont dependants, n'ont la plupart aucun egard 
pour leur superiorite et veulent dans les occasions passer pour 
independants. 

II serait a souhaiter que S. M. voulUt euvoyer dans ce pays 
toute sorte d'artisans, particulierement des ouvriers en cordagea 
et filages, des potierset un verrier, et ils trouveraient a s'occuper. 
Si S. M. voulait faire envoyer en marchandises une partie dea 



~K 



APPENDIX. 427 

appointemens de Messrs. les officiers, cela lerur adouciiait la 
durete qu'eux seuls trouvent dans le pays, par la grande chertd 
des marchandises causae par le mauvais retour de la monnaie de 
cartes qui fait acheter 3 et 4 pour 100. 

Veu: Vaudreuil. 

Veu: Begon. Cataloonb 



H. 

LETTER OF FATHER CARHEIL. 

Lbttke du PiiRE Etienne de Carheil, de la Compagnib db 
Jesus, a l'Intendant de Champignt. 

{Extrait.^') Archives Nationales. 

A MiCHILIMAKINA, LE 30 d'AoUST, 1702. 

.... Nos Missions sent r^duites a une telle extr^mit^, que 
nous ne pouvons plus les soutenir centre une multitude infinie de 
desordres, de brutalitez, de violences, d'injustices, d'impietez, 
d'impudicitez, d'insolences, de m^pris, d'insultes que I'infame et 
funeste traitte d'eau-de-vie y cause universellement dans toutes 
les nations d'icy haut, oil Ton vient la faire, allant de villages en 
villages et courant les lacs avee une quantity prodigieuse de 
barls, sans garder aucune mesure. Si Sa Majeste avoit veu 
une seule fois ce qui se passe et icy et a Montreal, dans tous les 
temps qu'on y fait cette malheureuse traitte, je suis sur qu'eUe ne 
balanceroit pas un moment, des la premiere vue, a la deffendre 
pour jamais sous les plus rigoureuses peines. 

Dans le ddsespoir oil nous sommes, U ne nous reste point 
d'autre party a prendre que celui de quitter nos Missions et de 
les abandonner aux traittants d'eau-de-vie, pour y ^tablir le 
domaine de leur traitte, de I'ivrognerie et de I'impuret^. C'est 
ce que nous allons proposer h. nos superieurs en Canada et en 
France, y etant contraints par I'^tat d'inutilite et d'impuissance 
de faire aucun fruit oil Ton nous a r^duits par la permission de 
cette deplorable traitte, permission que Ton n'a obtenue de Sa 
Majesty que sous un pretexte aparent de raisons que. I'on scail 

1 This letter is 45 pages long. 



428 APPENDIX. 

©tre faasses, permission qu'elle n'accorderoit point, si ceux aux- 
quels elJe se raporte de la verity la lui fesoient connoistre comme 
ils la connoissent eux-memes et tout le Canada avec eux, per- 
mission enfin qui est le plus grand mal et le principe de tous lea 
maux qui arrivent pr^sentement au pays, et surtout des nau- 
frages dont on n'entendoit point encore parler ici et que nous 
apprenons arriver maintenant presque touttes les ann^es ou dans 
la venue ou dans le retour de nos vaisseaux en France, par une 
juste punition de Dieu qui fait perir par I'eau ce que Ton avoit 
mal acquis par I'eau-de-vie, ou qui entend empecher le transport 
pour prevenir le mauvais usage qu'on en feroit. Si cette per- 
mission n'est revoquee par une deffense contraire, nous n'aurona 
plus que faire de demeurer dans aucune de nos Missions d'icy 
haut, pour y perdre le reste de notre vie, et touttes nos peines 
dans une pm-e inutilite sous I'empire d'une continuelle ivrognerie 
et d'une impurete universelle qu'on ne permet pas moins aux 
traitteurs d'eau-de-vie que la traitte meme dont elle est Taccom- 
pagnement et la suite. Si Sa Majesty vent sauver nos missions 
et soutenir I'dtablissement de la Religion, comme nous ne dou- 
tons point qu'elle le veuille, nous la suplions tres-humblement de 
croire, ce qui est tres veritable, qu'il n'y a point d'autre moyen 
de le pouvoir faire que d'abolir les deux infames commerces qui 
les ont r^duites a la necessity prochaine de pdrir et qui ne tar- 
deront pas a achever de les perdre, s'ils ne sont au plus tost 
abolis par ses ordres et mis hors d'etat d'etre r^tablis. Le pre- 
mier est le commerce de I'eau-de-vie ; le second est le commerce 
des femraes sauvages avec les Fran5ois, qui sont tous deux aussy 
publics Fun que I'autre, sans que nous puissions y rem^dier, pour 
n'estre pas appuyez des commandans qui, bien loin de les vouloir 
empecher par les remontrances que nous leur faisons, les exer- 
cent eux-memes avec plus de liberty que leurs inf^rieurs, et les 
autorisent tellement par leur exemple qu'en le regardant on s'en 
&it une permission g^n^rale et une assurance d'impunite qui les 
rend communs a tout ce qui vient icy de Frangois en traitte, de 
sorte que tous les villages de nos Sauvages ne sont plus que des 
cabarets pour Fivrognerie et des Sodomes pour I'impurete, d'oii 
il faut que nous nous retirions, les abandonnant a la juste colore 
de Dieu et k ses vengeances. 

Vous voyez par la que, de quelque maniere qu'on ^tablisse le 



APrENDix. . 429 

commerce FranQols avec les Saiivages, si Ton veut nous retemr 
parmi eux, nous y conserver et nous y soutenir en qualit(5 de 
missionnaires dans le libre exercice de nos fonctions avec 
esperance d'y faire du fruit, il faut nous delivrer des comman- 
dans et de leurs garnisons qui, bien loin d'estre ndcessaires, sont 
au contraire si pernicieuses que nous pouTons dire avec v^rita 
qu'elles sont le plus grand mal de nos missions, ne servant qu'4 
nuire a la traitte ordinaire des voyageurs et a I'avancement de la 
Foy. Depuis qu'elles sont venues icy haut, nous n'y avons plus 
veu que corruption universelle qu'elles out repandues par leur 
vie scandaleuse dans tons les esprits de ces nations qui en sont 
presentement infectt^es. Tout le service pr^tendu qu'on veut 
faire croire au Roy qu'elles rendent se r^duit k quatre princi- 
pales occupations dont nous vous prions instamment de vouloir 
bien informer le Roy. 

ha premiere est de tenir un cabaret public d' eau-de-vie ou ila 
la traittent continuellement aux Sauvages qui ne cessent point 
de s'enyvrer, quelques ©positions que nous y puissions faire. 
C'est en vain que nous leur parlons pour les arreter ; nous n'y 
gagnons rien que d'etre accusez de nous oposer nous-memes au 
Service du Roy en voulant empecber une traitte qui leur est, 
permise. 

La seconde occupation des soldats est d'estre envoyez d'un 
poste a I'autre par les Commandans, pour y porter leurs mar 
cbandises et leur eau-de-vie, apres s'etre accommod^s ensemble, 
sans que les uns et les autres ayent d'autre soin que celuy de 
s'entr'ayder mutuellement dans leur commerce, et afin que cela 
s'execute plus facilement des deux costez comme ils le souhait- 
ent, ils faut que les commandans se ferment les yeux pour user 
de connivence et ne voir aucun des desordres de leur soldats, 
quelques visibles, publics et scandaleux qu'ils soient, et il faut 
reciproquement que les soldats, outre qu'ils traittent leura 
propres marchandises, se fassent encore les traitteurs de cellea 
de leurs Commandans qui souvent meme les obligent d'en 
acheter d'eux pour leur permettre d'aller ou ils veulent. 

Leur troisieme occupation est de faire de leur fort un lieu que 
j'ay honte d'apeler par son nom, oil les femmes ont apris qua 
leurs corps pouvoient tenir lieu de marchandises et quelles 
seroient mieux regues que le castor, de sorte que c'est pr^seniO' 



430 . APPENDIX. 

ment le commerce le plus ordinaire, le plus continuel at le plus 
en vogue. Quelques efforts que puissent faire tons les mission- 
naires pour decrier et pour I'abolir, au lieu de diminuer, il aug- 
mente et se multiplie tous les jours de plus en plus ; tous les sol- 
dats tiennent table ouverte a touttes les femmes de leur con- 
naissance dans leur maison ; depuis le matin jusqu'au soir, elles 
y passent les journees entieres, les unes apres les autres, assises 
k leur feu et souvent sur leur lit dans des entretiens et des actions 
propre de leur commerce qui ne s'acheve ordinairement que la 
nuit, la foule ^tant trop grande pendant la journee pour qu'ils 
puissent I'achever, quoyque souvent aussy ils s'entrelaissent une 
maison vide de monde pour n'en pas diflKrer I'achevement jus- 
qu'a la nuit. 

La quatrieme occupation des soldats est celle du jeu qui a 
lieu dans les tems ou les traitteurs se rassemblent ; il y va quel- 
quefois a un tel point que n'etans pas contens d'y passer le jour, 
ils y passent encore la nuit entiere, et il n'arrive m§me que trop 
souvent dans I'ardeur de I'aplication qu'ils ne se souviement pas. 
ou s'ils s'en souviennent, qu'ils m^prisent de garder les postes. 
Mais ce qui augmente en cela leur desordre, c'est qu'un attache- 
ment si opiniatre au jeu n'est presque jamais sans une ivrognerie 
commune a tous les joueurs, et que I'ivrognerie est presque tou- 
jours suivie de querelles qui s'excitent entre eux lesquelles 
venant k paroitre publiquement aux yeux des Sauvages, causent 
parmi eux trois grands scandales : le premier de les voir ivres, le 
second de les voir s'entrebatre avec fureur les uns contre les 
autres jusqu'k prendre des fusils en main pour s'entretuer, le 
troisieme de voir que les Missionnaires n'y peuvent apporter 
aucun remede. 

Voila, Monseigneur, les quatre seules ocupations des gami- 
sons que Ton a tenues ici pendant tant d'ann^es. Si ces sortea 
d'ocupations peuvent s'apeler le service du Roy, j'avoue qu'elles 
luy out actuellement et toujours rendu quelqu'un de ces quatre 
services, mais je n'en ai point veu d'autres que ces quatre-lk ; et 
par consequent, si on ne juge pas que ce soit Ik des services 
n^cessaires au Roy, il n'y a point eu jusqu'a present de neces- 
sity de les tenir icy, et apres leur rapel, il n'y en aura point de 
les y r^tablir. 

Cependant comme cette n^cessite pr^+endue des Garnisons est 



APPENDIX. 43.1 

funique pretexte que Ton prend pour j envoyer des Com- 
mandans, nous vous prions, Monseigneur, d'etre bien persuade 
de la faussete de ce pretexte, afin que, sous ces sp^cieuses \par- 
ences du service du Roy, on ne se fasse pas une obligation d'en 
envoyer, puisque les Commandans ne viennent icy que pour y 
fairs la traitte de concert avec leurs soldats sans se mettre en 
peine de tout le reste. Es n'ont de liaison avec les Mission- 
naires que par les endroits ou ils les croient utiles pour leur 
temporel, et liors de la ils leur sont contraires des qu'ils veulent 
s'opposer au desordre qui, ne s'accordant ny avec le service de 
Dieu ny avec le service du Roy, ne laisse pas d'etre avantageux 
k leur commerce, au quel il n'est lien qu'ils ne sacrifient. C'est 
la I'unique cause qui a mis le dereglement dans nos IMissions, et 
qui les a tellement desolees par I'ascendant quo les Commandans 
ont pris sur les Missionnaires en s'attirant toute I'autorite soit h 
regard des Francois, soit a I'egard des Sauvages, que nous 
n'avons pas d'autre pouvoir que celui d'y travailler inutilement 
sous leur domination qui s'est elev^e jusqu'k nous pour noua 
faire des crimes civils et des accusations pr^tendues juridiques 
des propres fonctions de notre dtat et de notre devoir, comme I'a 
toujours fait Monsieur de la Motte qui ne voulait pas m^rae que 
nous nous servissions du mot de desordre et qui inteute en effet 
procez au pere Pinet pour s'en etre servi. 

.... Vous voyez, Monseigneur, que je me suis beaucoup 
etendu sur les articles des Commandans et des garnisons pour vous 
faire comprendre que c'est la qu'est venu tout le malheur de noa 
Missions. Ce sont les Commandans, ce sont les garnisons, qui, 
se joignant avec les traitteurs d'eati-de-vie les ont entierement 
desolees par I'ivrognerie et par une impudicit^ presque univer- 
selle que Ton y a etablie par une continuelle impunite de I'une 
et de I'autre, que les puissances civiles ne tolerent pas seule- 
ment, raais qu'elles permettent, puisque l«s pouvant empScher, 
elles ne les empechent pas. Je ne crains done point de vous 
declarer que si Ton remet icy baut dans nos missions des Com- 
mandans traitteurs et des garnisons de soldats traitteurs, nous ne 
doutons point que nous ne soyons contraints de les quitter, n'y 
pouvant rien faire pour le salut des ames. C'eFt k vous d'iu 
former Sa Majeste de I'extremit^ ou Ton nous rMuit et de luy 
demandcr pour nous notre d^livrance, afin que nous puissions 



432 APPENDIX 

travail] er h retablissement de la Religion sans ces empScliemenfi 
qui I'ont arrets jusqu'k present. 



I. 

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE CLERGY. 
Memoike db Talon sur l'Etat present du Canada, 1667. 
. {Mxtrait) Archives de la Marine. 

. . . L'EcCLi&siASTiQUE est compost d'un Evesque, ayant 
le tiltre de Petr(^e, In partibus infidelium, et se servant du carao- 
tere et de I'autorit^ de Vicaire Apostolique. 

II a soubs [sows] luy neuf Prestres, et plusieurs clercs qui 
vivent en communaute quand ils sont pres de lui dans son Semi- 
naire, et separ^ment a la campagne quand ils j sont envoyez par 
voye de mission pour desservir les cures qui ne sont pas encore 
fondees. II y a pareillement les Peres de la Compagnie de 
Jesus, au nombre de trente-cinq, la pluspart desquels sont em- 
ployez aux Missions ^trangeres: ouvrage digne de leur zele et 
de leur pi^t^ s'il est exempt du meslange de I'int^rest dont on 
les dit susceptibles, par la traitte des pelleteries qu'on assure 
qu'ils font aux 8ta8aks [^Outaouaks^,et au Cap de la Magde- 
laine ; ce que je ne S9ay pas de science certaine. 

La vie de ces Eccl^siastiques, par tout ce qui paroist au de- 
hors, est fort r^glee, et peut servir de bon exemple et d'un bon 
modele aux s^culiers qui la peuvent imiter ; mais comme ceux 
qui composent cette Colouie ne sont pas tous d'esgale force, ny 
de vertu pareille, oxi n'ont pas tous les mesmes dispositions au 
bien, quelques-uns tombent ays^ment dans leur disgrdce pour ne 
pas se conformer h leur maniere de vivre, ne pas suivre tous 
leurs sentimens, et ne s'abandonner pas k leur conduite qu'ils 
estendent jusques sur le temporel, empi^tant mesme sur la police 
ext^rieure qui regarde le seul magistrat. 

On a lieu de soupconner que la pratique dans laquelle ils 
Hont, qvii n'est pas bien conforme k celle des Eccl^siastiques da 



APPENDIX. 433 

I'Aiicienne France, a pour but de partager I'autorit^ temporelle 
qui, jusques au temps de I'arriv^e des troupes du Roy en Canada, 
residoit principalement en leur personnes. 

A ce mal qui va jusques a gehenner \_gener'] et contraindre 
les consciences, et par la desgouter les colons les plus attachez 
au pays, on pent donner pour remede I'ordre de balancer avec 
adresse et moderation cette autorite par celle qui reside ez [_dans 
/es] personnes envoydes par Sa Majeste pour le Gouvernement : 
ce qui a desja et^ pratique ; de permettre de renvoyer un ou 
deux Ecclesiastiques de ceux qui reconnoissent moins cette auto- 
rite temporelle, et qui troublent le plus par leur conduite le repos 
de la Colonie, et introduire quatre Ecclesiastiques entre les secu- 
liers ou les r^guliers, les faisant bien autoriser pour I'administra- 
tion des Sacremens, sans qu'ils puissent estre inqui^tez : autre- 
ment ils deviendroient inutiles au pays, parce que s'ils ne se 
conformoient pas a la pratique de ceux qui y sont aujourd'huy 
M. I'Evesque leur deffendroit d'administrer les Sacremens. 

Pour estre mieux inform^ de' cette conduite des consciences, 
on pent entendre Monsieur Dubois, Aimiosnier au regiment de 
Carignan, qui a ouy plusieurs Confessions en secret, et a la des- 
robde, et Monsieur de BretonvOliers sur ce qu'il a appris par les 
Ecclesiastiques de son S^minaire establi h Mont-K^al. 

Letteb du Ministke a Mb. Talon, 20 Fevbier, 1668. 
(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine, 

. . . B faut que I'application d'un Gouverneur et d'un Inten- 
dant aide a adoucir le mal, et non a I'effet que le Gouverneur ne 
se porte a aucune extr^mite, contre les Sieurs Eveque et les P. P. 
Jesuites, quand bien meme ils auraient abuse du pouvoir qae 
leur habit et le respect qu'on a naturellement pour la religion 
leur donne. En se contentant par des conferences particulierea 
de resserrer ce pouvoir, autant que se pourra, dans les bornes 
d'une legitime autorit4 et esperant que, quand le pays sera plus 
peuple, qui est la seule et unique chose que doit convier le dit 
Sr. Gouverneur et Intendant a y donner leurs soins quand a pre- 
sent, I'autorite Roy ale qui sera la plus reconnue des pen pies pre- 
TSi^dra sur I'autre et la contiendra dans de justes limites. 

. . . Je ne m'explique point avec vous sur ce sujet, parceque 

28 



434 APPENDIX. 

je sais qu'a part ses bonnes qualit^s il [il!/. de Oourcelle] a us^ 
d'emportement dont il est bon qu'il &e corrige. Insinuez luii 
aussi honnetement les sentiments qu'il doit avoir et ce que je 
viens de vous dire au sujet du Sieur de Ressan, et qu'il ne doit 
jamais blamer la conduite de I'Eveque de Petree ni des Jesuites 
en public, dtant assez d'en user avec eux avec grande circonspec- 
tion, se contentant seulement lorsqu'ils entreprendront trop de 
leur faire connaitre et d'en envoyer des memoires, afin que je 
confere avec leurs Sup^rieurs de ces entreprises et en cas qu'il « 
en fassent qu'on puisse les interdire. 

Insthuction pour M. de Bouteroue, 1668. 
(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

II faut empescher autant qu'il se pourra la trop grande quan- 
tite des prestres, religieux, et religieuses . . . s'entremettre 
quelquefois et dans les occasions pour les porter a adoucir cette 
trop grande severity, estant tres-important que lesdits evesque et 
Jesuites ne s'aper9oivent jamais qu'U veuille blasmer leur con- 
duite. 

Signe Colbert. 

For the instructions on this subject, more precise and em 
phatic than the above, given by the king to Talon in 1665, see 
N. Y. Colonial Docs., IX. 24. 

Lettre de Colbert a Duchesneau, 16 Atril, 1676. 

(Extrait.') Archives de la Marine. 

Eviter les contestations . . . sans toutefois pr^judicier aux 
precautions qui sont k prendre et aux mesures a garder pour 
empescher que la puissance eccldsiastique n'entreprenne rien sui 
la temporelle, a quoy les ecclesiastiques sont assez portes. 

Lettbb du Ministre a Ddchesneau, le 28 Avril, 1677 

(^Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

. . . Je vous dirai premierement que Sa Majesty est bien 
persuad^e de la pi6te de tons les Ecclesiastiques et de leurs bonnes 



APPENDIX. 43/1 

intentions pour le succez du sujet de leurs missions, mais Sa 
Majeste veut que vous preniez garde qu'ils n'entreprenuent rien 
tant sur son authorite Royalle que sur la justice et police du 
pays et que vous les resserriez precisement dans les bornes de 
I'authorite que les Ecclesiastiques ont dans le Royaume, sans 
soufFrir qu'ils les passent en quelque sorte et maniere que ce 
soit, et cette maxime gdneralle vous doit servir pour toutes les 
difficultez de cette nature qui pourront survenir; mais pour 
parvenir k ce point il seroit necessaire que vous-mesme vous tra- 
vailliassiez a vous rendre habil sur ces matieres en lisant les 
autlieurs qui en ont traitte, observer tout ce qui se passe et a en- 
voyer tous les ans des m^moires sur les ditficultez que vous aurez 
et auxquelles vous n'aurez pas pu remedier; considerez cette 
matiere comme tres importante et a laquelle vous ne S5auriez 
donner trop d'aj)plication. 

Lettse du Ministrb a Duchbsnbau, lb fbemies Mat, 1677 
(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

. . Je suis encore oblige de vous dire que Ton voit elaire- 
ment qu'encore que le dit Sieur Evesque soit un homme de bien 
et qu'il fasse fort bien son devoir, il ne laisse pas d'affecter une 
domination qui passe de beaucoup au dela des bornes que les 
Evesques ont dans tout le monde chrestien et particulierement 
dans le Royaume et ainsy vous devez vous appliquer a bien con- 
noistre et a s9avoir le plus parfaitement que vous pourrez I'es- 
tendue du pouvoir des Evesques et les remedes que I'authorite 
Royalle a apport^ pour en erapescher I'abus et leur trop grande 
domination, afin que vous puissiez de concert avec IMonsieur le 
Comte de Frontenac dans les occasions importantes y apporter les 
mesmes remedes, en quoy vous devez toujours agir avec beaucoup 
de moderation et de retenue. . . . Comme je vols que Monsieur 
r Evesque de Quebec, ainsi que je viens de vous dire aiFecte une 
authority un peu trop inddpendante de I'authorite Royalle et que 
par cette raison il seroit peut-estre bon qu'il n'eust pas de seance 
dans le conseil, vous devez bien examiner toutes les occasions 
et tous les moyens que Ton pourrait pratiquer, pour luy donner 
k luy-mesme I'envie de n'y plus venir ; mais vous devez en cela 



436 APPENDIX 

vous conduire avec beaucoup de retenue, et bien prendre garde 
que qui ce soit ne descouvre ce que je vous escris sur ce point 



Memoiee du Roi Aux SiEUKS DE Fkontenac et de Chamfiomt, 
Annee 1692. 

(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

. . . Sa Majeste veut aussy qu'ils \_Frontenac et Ghampigny^ 
assistent de leur authorite les Jesuites et les Rdcolets et toua 
autres Eccl^siastiques sans n^antmoins soufFrir qu'ils portent 
I'autorit^ eccl^siastique plus loin qu'elle ne doit s'estendre. Elle 
ne veut pas qu'ils se dispeusent de faire doucement et avec touts 
la discretion possible des remonstrances au dit Sieur Evesque 
dans les occasions oil ils reconnoistront que les Ecclesiastiques 
agissent par un zele immodere ou par d'autres passions, afin de 
I'engager k y remedier et a faire tout ce qui depend avec lui 
pour procurer le repos des consciences. Les dits Sieurs de Fron- 
tenac et de Champigny doivent se tenir en cela dans les voyes 
de la seule excitation et informer sa Majeste de tout ce qui se 
passera a cet ^gard- 

Lettkb de Monsieur de la Mothe Cadillac. 
{Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

28 Septembke, 1694 
.... La chose ne se passa pas aiusi qu'il I'a raconte dans cet 
article et le suivant ; ceux qui savent I'histoire de ce temps la en 
parlent autrement et voicy^ le fait : Monsieur de Laval fit 
di verses tentatives a pen pres comme celles q'on void aujourd'huy 
dont le but a toujours ete de prevaloir sur I'autorite du gouverne- 
ment ; Monsieur de Tracy pour lors Vice-roy de ce pays, voyait 
tranquillement le desir de cette elevation, et comme c'estoit un 
homme d^vot, il ne jiigea pas a propos de preter le colet a cette 
cohorte Ecclesiastique, dont la puissance ^toit redoutable. 
Monsieur Talon dans cette conjoncture fit paroitre une plus 
forte resolution et risqua pour I'interest du Roy de perdre son 
credit et sa fortune ; il vid qu'il falloit etoufFer cet orage dans son 
berceau et enfin par ses remontrances et par ses soins, il fit 



APPENDIX. 437 

douner un arrSt favorable et tel qu'il se I'etoit propose INIon- 
sieur de Laval voyant alors qu'on I'avoit rengain^ el qu'on 
I'avoit coupe a demi-vent, il creut suivant la politique de I'Eglise 
qu'il falloit attendre un temps plus favorable ; ayant done mis 
armes bas, on tacha de rajuster les affaires par Tentremise meme 
de Monsieur de Tracy qui obtint de Monsieur Talon au jour de 
8a reconciliation que I'arrSt en question seroit raye et batonn(5, 
non pas pour le desaprouver ou pour I'avoir trouve contraire a 
toute bonne justice, comme le veut persuader le procureur 
general ; mais afin que Monsieur de Laval ne fut pas reprochable 
de ses ecarts et de ses injustes pretentions; ce fut une foiblesse a 
Monsieur Talon de s'etre laisse vaincre par de telles soumis- 
sions. 

.... II faut Stre ici pour voir les menses qui se font tons lea 
jours pour renverser le plan et les projets d'un Gouverneur. II 
faut une tete aussi ferme et aussi plombee que celle de Monsieur 
le Comte pour se soutenir centres les ambusches que partout on 
lui dresse ; s'il veut la paix cela suffit pour qu'on s'y oppose et 
qu'on crie que tout est perdu ; s'il veut faire la guerre, on lui ex- 
pose la ruine de la coUonie. II n'auroit pas tant d'affaires sur 
les bras, s'il n'avoit pas aboK un Hiericho qui etait une maison 
que Messieurs du S^minaire de Montreal avoient fait batir pour 
renfermer, disoient-ils, les filles de mauvaise vie. S'il avoit voulu 
leur pei'mettre de prendre des soldats et leur donner des officiers 
pour aller dans les maisons arracher des femmes h minuit et cou- 
cbdes avec leurs maris, pour avoir et^ au bal ou en masque et les 
faire fesser jusques au sang dans ce Hiericho ; s'il n'avait rien dit 
encore centre des Cures qui faisoient la ronde avec des soldats 
et qui obligeoient en este les filles et les femmes a se renfermer 
a neuf beures chez elles, s'il avoit voulu deffendre de porter de 
la dentelle, s'il n'avoit rien dit sur ce qu'on refusoit la communion 
a ies femmes de qualite pour avoir une fontange, s'il ne s'oppo- 
soit point encore aux excommunications qu'on jette a tort et a 
travers, aux scandales qui s'en suivent, s'il ne faisoit les officiers 
quo par la voye des communautes, s'il vouloit deffendre le vin et 
I'eau de vie aux sauvages, s'il ne disoit mot sur le sujet des cures 
fixes et droits de patronage, si Monsieur le Comte estoit de ces 
avis-la, ce seroit assurement un homme sans pareil et il seroit 
bientot sur la liste des plus grands saints, car on les canonise 
dans ce pais a bon marcbe. 



438 APPENDIX. 



CANADIAN CURES. EDUCATION. DISCIPLINE. 

Lettre du Marquis de Dbnonvillb ait Minists:b. 

(Extrait.) Archives de la Marine. 

A Quebec 15 Novbmbhe, 1685 

.... Vous me permettrez, Monseigneur, de vous demandei 
la grace de faire quelques reflections sur les moyens d'occuper la 
jeunesse du pays, dans son bas age, et dans I'age le plus avanc^, 
que je vous rende compte de mes pensees la dessus, puisque c'est 
une des choses la plus essentielle de la colonic. 

Pour y parvenir, Monseigneur, le premier moyen k mon gr^, 
est de multiplier le nombre des Cur^s, et de les rendre plus fixes 
et residentaires, Mr. notre Eveque en est si convaincu par la 
connaissance qu'il a prise de son diocese dans ses visites, et dans 
le voyage que nous avons fait ensemble, qu'il n'a point de plus 
grand erapressement que de pouvoir contribuer a cet etablisse- 
ment qui serait un moyen sur, pour faire des ^coles, auxquelles 
les cures s'occuperaient et ainsi accoutumeraient les enfans de 
bonne heure ii s'assugetir et a s'occuper : Mais, Monseigneur, 
pour faire cet etablissement utilement, il faudrait multiplier le 
nombre des cures jusques au nombre de cinquante et un. Le 
m^moire que je vous en envoy e, vous fera assez bien voir, que si 
on les ^tend da vantage et qu'il faille que les cur^s passent et re- 
passent la riviere, comme ils font a present pour faire leurs fonc- 
tions, ils employent avec bien du travail tout le temps qu'ils 
pourraient donner k instruire la jeunesse, si leurs cures ^taient 
moins ^tendues. Outre cela, Monseigneur, a I'entr^e et a la 
sortie de I'hiver, il y a pres de deux mois que Ton ne saurait 
passer la riviere, qui en bien des endroits a une lieue de largeur, 
et beaucoup plus en d'autres. Si bien que dans ces temps il 
faut que les malades demeurent sans aucun secours spirituel. 

C'est une piti^, Monseigneur, que de voir I'ignorance dans 
laquelle les peuples ^loignes du sdjour des Cur^s vivent en ce 
pays, et les peines que les missionnaires et Cur^s se donnent 
pour y remedier en parcourant leurs cures, sur le pied qu'elles 
sont selon le memoire que je vous en envoye. Vous y verrez, 



APPENDIX. 439 

Jlonseigneur, le chemin qu'il leur faut faire pour visiter leur 
paroisses dans les rigueurs de I'hiver. 

Puisque j'ai entame I'affaire des Cures vous me permettrez 
d'achever de vous dire que pour la subsistance d'un cure selon les 
connaissauces que j'ai pu prendre du pays, iepuis que j'y suis, 
eelon le prix des denrees, on ue saurait donner moins a un cure 
pour sa subsistance que quatre cents livres, monoye de France, 
attendu qu'il ne faut pas compter sur aucun revenant bon du 
dedans de I'Eglise. II est bien vrai qu'il y a quelques cures qu 
sont mieux peuplees dont les dismes sont assez raisonables pour 
pouvoir suffir a leur entretien, mais il y en a tres peu sur ce pied 
la. 

J'ai trouve ici dans le S^minaire de I'Evech^, le commence- 
ment de deux ^tablissements qui seraient admirables pour la 
Colonic, si on les pouvait augmenter, ce sont, Monseigneur, deux 
maisons oil Ton retire des enfans pour les instruire, dans I'une on 
y met ceux auxquels on trouve de la disposition pour les lettres, 
auxquelles on s'attache de les former pour I'Eglise, qui dans la 
suite peuvent rendre plus de service que les pretres Fran9ai3 
^tants plus faits que les autres aux fatigues et aux manieres du 
pays. 

Dans I'autre maison on y met ceux qui ne sont propres que 
pour etre artisans, et a ceux la on apprends des metiers. Je 
croirais que ce serait la un moyen admirable pour commencer un 
^tablissement de manufactures, qui sont absolument necessaires 
pour le secours de ce pays. 

Mr. notre Eveque est charme de ces dtablissements, et vou- 
drait bien §tre en etat de les soutenir et augmenter. Mais 
comme tout cela ne se pent faire sans depense tant pour I'aug- 
montation du nombre des Cures que pour cette espece de manu- 
facture, et qu'il conviendrait d'en faire de grandes, pour y reussir, 
je ne vols qu'un moyen assure pour cela, qui serait que le Roy 
voulut bien donner une grosse abbaye a Mr. notre Eveque sans 
Tattacher a I'Eveche, comme il n'a I'esprt et le coeur occupes que 
des soins de faire du bien aux pauvres et augmenter la foi et le 
ealut des ames, il est certain que Sa Majesty, aurait le plaisir da 
voir employer le revenu de*ce benMce en bonnes et saintea 
oeuvres, qui feraient merveille pour le bien de la colonie son sou- 
tien et son augmentation. 



440 APPENDIX. 

J'ai trouve a Villemarie en I'isle de Montreal, un ^tablisse- 
ment de soeurs de la congregation, sous la conduite de la soeur 
Bourgeois, qui fait de grands biens a toute la colonie, ellea 
furent brulees Fan passe ou elles perdirent tout ; il seroit fort 
necessaire qu'elles se retablissent, elles n'ont pas le premier sol, 
j'y ai trouve un autre ^tablissement de fiUes de la providence qui 
travaillent ensemble, elles pourront commencer quel que manfac- 
ture de ce cote la, si vous avez la bonte de con tinner la gratifi- 
cation de mil livres pour les laines, et mil livres pour apprendre 
at tricoter. II y a encore un troisieme ^tablissement pour faire 
des maitres d'ecoles. 

II faut revenir s'il vous plait, Monseigneur, a voir ce qui se 
peut faire pour dissipliner les grands gar^ons, et pour donner de 
I'occupation aux enfans des gentilshommes et autres soi-disans et 
vivans comme tels. 

Avant tout, Monseigneur, vous me permettrez de vous dire 
que la noblesse de ce pays nouveau, est tout ce qu'il y a de plus 
gueux et que d'en augmenter le nombre est augmenter le nombre 
des faineants. Un pays neuf demande des gens laborieux et in- 
dustrieux, et qui mettent la main a la hache et a la pioche. Les 
enfans de nos conseillers ne sont pas plus laborieux, et n'ont de 
ressource que les bois, oil ils font quelque traite, et la plupart 
font tons les desordres dont j'ai eu I'honneur de vous entretenir, 
je ne m'oublierai en rien de ce qu'il y aurait k faire pour les 
engager a entrer dans le commerce, mais comme nos nobles et 
conseillers sont tons fort pauvres et accables de debtes, ils ne 
sauraient trouver de credit pour un ^cu. 

Le seul moyen qui me parait le plus assur^ pour disciplinei 
cette jeunesse serait que le Roy voulut bien entretenir en ce 
pays, quelques compagnies, dont on donnerait le commandement 
a gens d'authorit^ et de bonnes moeurs et appliques, comme a 
Mr. le Chevalier de Cailliere, a Mr. de Var^nes, Gouverneur 
des trois Rivieres, ou au Sr. Pr^vot, Major de Quebec, avee des 
Lieutenants du pays que Ton choisirait, lesquels ne devraient 
point avoir peine d'obeir, k ceux auxquels naturellement ils 
doivent ob^ir. 



INDEX. 



Absolutism in Canada, 394, 395. 

Acadia, Talon attempts to open com- 
munication with, 213. 

Agariata, a Mohiawk chief, execution 
ofj 192. 

Agriculture, unprosperous state of, 
296, 297. 

Aillebout, governor of Quebec, seizes 
Iroquois hostages, 34 ; " insanely 
pious," 107. 

Aillebout, Madame, 50 ; singulai" meth- 
od of self-discipline, 356. 

Albanel, a Jesuit, chaplain at Fort 
Chambly, 190; penetrated to Hud- 
son's Bay, 213. 

Allet, a Sulpitian priest, his memoir, 
40 note. 

Andaraqu^, a Mohawk fort, captured 
by the French, 196. 

Annahotaha, a Huron chief, 74. 

Aontarisati, a Mohawk chief, execu- 
tion of, 5. 

Argenson, Vicomte d', appointed gov- 
ernor of Canada, 65 ; views on relig- 
ion, 65. 66 ; his character. 107 ; quar- 
rels with Laval, 107-114 ; assumes 
governorship, 115 ; his troubles, 116- 
120 ; is recalled, 120. 

Attorney-General, the, duties of, 268. 

Auteuil, Ruette d', member of Laval's 
council, 136. 

Avaugour, Dubois dCj Baron, governor 
of Canada, 120 ; his policy, 121 ; is 
recalled, 129 ; memorial to Colbert, 
129 ; his death, 130. 



B. 

Bagot, a Jesuit, tutor of Laval, 88; 

founder of religious fraternity, 90. 
Ball, the first, in Canada, 347. 
Bardy, Father, his sermon against 

Courcelle and Talon, 333. 
Baston. a merchant of Eochelle, 372. 



Beauport, seigniory of Dr. GifFanL 

238. 
Beaupr^, Laval's seigniory, 237 ; most 

orderly settlement, 374. 
Beaver-skins, trade in, 5 note, 303- 

310. 
Bechefer Jesuit envoy to Mohawks 

191. 
Beggars, multitude of, in Canada, 379 ; 

measures to suppress mendicity, 380 
B^gon, intendant, report of, 298. 
Beletre, a peace-maker, 372. 
Bemiferes, founder of The Hermitage, 

89. 
Bemon, a Huguenot merchant, case 

of, 291, 292. 
Berthelot, a prosperous settler, 262 

note. 
Bienville, a gentilhomme rover, 261. 
Bochart, Du Plessis, death of, 2. 
Bochart, Marie, manied at twelve 

years, 227 note. 
Boisdon, Jean, innkeeper, provisions of 

his license, 382. 
Boston, the English of, take possession 

of Acadian fisheries, 294, 295 note. 
Boucher, Magdeleine, her do'Nvry, 381, 

382. 
Boucher, Pierre, delegate from Canada 

to France, 131 ; his book, 131 note, 

221 note. 
Bougainville cited, 365 ; opinion of th« 

habitant, 389. 
Boull^, fanner of Dr. Giffard, 246. 
Bourdon, Jean, attorney-general of 

Canada, 136 ; his speculations, 138 ; 

banished by Mezy, 155. 
Bourdon,Madame,her weighty charges, 

223. 
Bourgeoys, Marguerite, founder of 

school at Montreal, returns to Can- 
ada, 41, 42 ; keeps school in a stable, 

43 ; superintends marriages, 224. 
Brandy, Indian fondness for, 121j 122 ; 

its use and effects, 323 ; essential to 

fur trade, 324 ; penalties for seUing, 

325 and note ; questi( ns of sale re- 



442 



INDEX 



ferred to Doctors of Sorbonne and 

chief people of Canada, 326. 
Braun, Father, sermon on Church and 

State, 166. 
brebeuf. Father, mh'aculous efficacy 

of his bones, 180. 
Br^da, treaty of, secured peace batwe^in 

English and French colonies, 199. 
Br^soles, a nun of sisterhood of St. 

Joseph, 46 ; piety and culinary skill, 

51. 
Biigeac, Claude de, tortured to death 

b-' Iroquois, 57, 58. 
Bullion, Madame de, " the unknown 

benefactress," 45. 
Busy season, the 386. 



c. 



Canada, condition of, in 1660-1661, 63, 
64 ; domestic (juarrels in, 83, 84 ; in 
state of transition, 106, 107 ; govern- 
ment vested in council of nine, 135 ; 
dawn of a better day, 179. 

Canadians, pride and sloth, chief faults 
of, 257, 258 ; physical characteristics 
of, 378 ; conflicting estimates of, 388. 

(jarneil, a Jesuit priest, cited. 315, 319- 
322 ; letter of, touching missions, 
427-432. 

Carignan-Saliferes, first regiment of 
regular troops sent to America by 
French governmentj 181 ; its history, 
181, 182 and note ; its members dis- 
charged and made colonists, 218. 

Carion, a lioutenant, assaults a brother 
officer, 371, 372. 

Casgrain, Abb^, cited, 294 note. 

Catalogne, report of, on condition of 
Canada, 254 note ; report of, 297 ; 
memoire of, 424-427. 

Catholics in France, parties among, 
95. 

Censitaire, tenant of land en censive, 
249 ; rights of, 250-252. 

Censive, en, a kind of tenure, 249. 

ChalonSj Sieur de, Eiverin's partner 
293 ; joint memoire of, 423. 

Chair.pigny, intendant, letter of, 257; 
referred to, 376. 

Champlain,his strong missionary spirit, 
107. 

Character, Canadian, formation of, 
394. 

Charlevoix, Father, statement of. 123 ; 
reference to mines, 210 note ; opinions 
of Canadian society, 392, 393. 

Chamj', son and successor of Lauson, 
32. 

(Iharron, alderman and syndic of Qnri- 
bec, 153. 



Chasv, nephew of Gea. Fracy, killml 
by Indians, 191. 

Chateau St. Louis, 419-421. 

Chatel, a nun of Sisterhood of St 
Joseph, 47. 

Chatelain, Father, his prying dispo- 
s'aoi , 350, 351. 

OLaumc/not, a Jesuit, envoy to Onon- 
dagas, 16, 17; letter of, 81, 82 note. 

Chaumont, Chevalier de, member of 
Tracy's staff, 178; afflicted with a 
blister, 194. 

Chesnaye, Charles Aubert de la, letter 
of, 325 note, 326 note. 

Children, bounties on, 227 ; gratifj-ing 
results of this pohcy, 228 ; Raudot's 
opinion of, 376 ?iote. 

Citi^re, La, a forfeited grant, 249 note. 

Closse, Major, killed by Iroquois, 58. 

Colbert, Jean Bap tiste, letter to Terron, 
142, 143; minister of Louis XIV., 
his character and aims, 172-196; 
authorities, 173 note ; instruciions 
to Talon, 209; scolds intendahts, 
277; instructions as to Jesuits, 334, 
335 ; letter to Talon, 416, 417 ; to 
same, 433; letters to Duchesneau, 
434, 435. 

Colombifere, vicar-general, eulogy on 
Laval, 165. 

Colonization, military, peculiarities of, 
231, 232. 

Communication with France, rarity of, 
288. ^ 

Company of the West, its creation and 
purpose, 174 ; how it oppressed 
Canada, 175. 

Confessional, the, use of ,by Jesuits,351. 

Conversion of Iroquois, political signif- 
icance of, 317. 

Cotes, formation of, 234. 

Council, sovereign, reorganization of, 
154; constitution and powers of, 
267, 268 ; in session, 271, 272. 

Councillors, character and tenure of, 
274. 

Courcelle. See Remy. 

Coureurs de bois, 310-313 ; punishment 
of, 310, 311 ; their return, picture of, 
312, 313; uses and hfe, 313-315; 
missionaries' complaints of, 321. 

Coutume de Par's, 252. 

Crolo, a nun of S.sterhood of St- Joseph, 
47. 

Cnr^s, fixation of, 161 ; this poller fa- 
vored by the king, 338 ; Denonville'i 
views on, 438-440. 

D. 

Dablon, a Jesuit, envoy to Onondaga, 
16 ,' preaches against theatres, 347. 



INDEX. 



443 



Daaiiours, Matthieu, member of Laval's 
council, 136 ; arrest of his sons, 259. 

Daulac, Adam, heroic enterprise of, 
73-82 ; death of, 81 ; saved Canada 
from invasion, 82 note. 

Dauversiere, Le Rover de la, founder 
of Sisterhood of St. Joseph, 42; 
sketch of, 45 ; miracle wrought in 
his behalf, 46, 47. 

Demers, his encounter with La Fred- 
i^re, 369, 370. 

Demons, how they wrought against 
the Jesuits, 31. 

Denonville, governor of Canada, letter 
of, 258 ; memoire, 294, 311, 312 ; 
priestly counsel as to his mode of life, 
344-346 ; account of disorders in col- 
ony, 375, 376 ; his views on rearing 
children, 377; letter of, on curds, 
438-440. 

Discoverv of the Great West, reference 
to, 213". 

Disorder in the colony, causes of, 374, 
375. 

Dollier de Casson,a priest, extracts from 
writings of, 40 note, 49 note, 55, 58, 
60, 75,"l87, 212, 227, 229 ; exploits of, 
194, 195 ; sent to Fort Anne, his ad- 
ventures en route, 201 ; his welcome, 
202; his work, 203, 204 note; a 
peacemaker, 372 ; his story of an 
outlaw, 373. 

Drunkenness, most destructive vice in 
the colony, 378. 

Ou Bois, Jean Baptiste, a French 
officer, deputed to take possession of 
Mohawk country, 198. 

• nchesneau, intendant, letter of, 25'' ", 
blamed for non-increase of popula- 
tion, 277; his plan to encourage 
fisheries, 295 ; cite'', 310, 311, 377. 

Du Lhut, a gentiltiomme rover, 261 ; 
his scheme of organizing coureurs de 
bois, 310. 

DuraesnU, agent of Company of New 
France, 132 ; raises a storm at Quebec, 
132, 133 ; attempts on his life, 134 ; 
error of, 137 note ; his papers seized, 
139, 140 ; flees to France, 141, 142 ; 
his principal memorial, 144 note ; me- 
moire concerning affairs in Canada, 
411-413. 

Dimaont, an officer sent from France 
to report '^n condition of Canada, 
131. 

Dupuy, Paul, punished for expressing 
an opinion, 281. 

Dupuj', Paul, officer of Carignan, 369. 

Du Puys, Zachary, 20; his coolness, 

35 ; escajie of, 38, 39. 
Durantaye, La, 202, 320 note. 



E. 

Earthquake, the, 125-128. 
Earth-slides, 127 and note. 
Education, controlled by ecclesiastics, 

359 ; branches of learning taught, 

360. 
Eels, Jesuit fisheries of, 330 Twte. 
Elections, public, proposed by De 

Mdzy, 149. 
Emigrants, shipment of, begun, 216; 

process of sending, 216 ; character 

of, 217 and note. 
Emigration, growth of Canada by, 218 

note ; cessation of, 230. 
Englisb colonies, comparison of, with 

Canada, causes of their greater pros- 
perity, 396. 
Estrades, Mar^chal d', viceroy foi 

America, 176. 



F. 

Faillon, Abbfe, author's indebtedness 
to, 61, 62 note. 

Fairs, grand annual, 303, 304. 

Ferland, Abbfe, his defence of Laval, 
113, 114 ; cited, 247 note. 

FertS, Juchereau de la, member of 
Laval's council, 136. 

Feudalism, transplanting of, 243 ; 
essential feature of, unknown in 
Canada, 245 ; aistinctive feature of, 
in Canada, 248. 

FLiances, colonial, condition of, 299- 
301. 

Fires, how they were managed in Que- 
bec, 384. 

Flemish Bastard, the, a half-breed 
leader of Mohawks, 11, 191, 192. 

Fontainebleau, court of Louis XIV. at, 
169. 

Fort William Henry, site ofj 193. 

France, Canadians not permitted to 3B- 
tum to, without leave, 281. 

Franchetot, Mathurin, capture of, 3. 

Fremin, a Jesviit priest, 21. 

French system of colonizaticn, one ad- 
vantage of, 398. 

Frenchmen, educated, list of, 366 nota 

Frontenac, Count, complains of scarcitj 
of peasant girls, 220 ; views on the 
brandy question, 328 ; cited, 348. 

Fur tradCj the, 303 ; its irregularities, 
305 ; hcenses, 305 ; shipment to 
France, 306 ; accumulation of furs, 
307 ; a monopoly, 307, 308 ; another 
glut, 309; authorities on, 309 ncte. 
great evil resulting from, 309. 3)f> 



iU 



INDEX. 



G. 

Gahoury, Louis, punished for eating 

meat in Lent, 283. 
Garaconti^, an Indian chief, friendly 

to Jesuits, 184. 
Gardes de la manne, appointments to, 

259. 
Gameau, cited, 217 note. 
Grarreaii, a Jesuit, murder of, 31. 
Ga-iais-Dupont, royal commissioner, 

1.'6; his instructions, 136 note; 

memorial to Colbert in the Dimiesnil 

case, 409-411. 
Gentilshomines, 255, 256 ; poverty and 

idleness of, 257 ; painful position of, 

260; their adventurous life, 261; 

their discoveries, 261. 
Giffard, a prominent citizen of Quebec, 

137 note. 
Girls, education of, 365. 
God^, Nicolas, 55. 
Gossip, fondness of country women 

for, 387. 
Government of Canada, nature of, 

264, 288. 
Governors of Canada, rank and duties 

of, 265, 266. 
Guimont, Louis, a pious cripple, 363. 
Guion, Jean, how he rendered homage 

to his seignior, 246, 247. 



H. 

Habitants, tenure of, 245, 246. 

Harlay, Ajchbishop of Kouen, Colbert's 
letter to, 222. 

Hazeur, builds a saw-mill, 293. 

Heresy driven out of Canada, 354 ; the 
search for it, 354, 355. 

Hermitage, the, Nicole's account of, 89- 
93 ; object of founders, 93 note ; his- 
tory and purpose of, 403-407. 

Herlel, Francois, letters of, 67, 68 ; his 
career, 68. 

Historj', Canadian, English conquest 
tLe grand crisis of, 400, 401. 

Hocquart, intendant, his estimate of 
Cauadiaus, 389. 

Holy Family, colony in honor of, 43. 

Holy Famih', Congregation of, a source 
of information for the priests, 352. 

Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and 
Joseph, soldiers of, 60. 

Holy Virgin, proprietor of Montreal, 
61 and note; miraculous interposi- 
tion of, 70,71. 

Homage of vassal to seignior, how ren- 
dered, 246, 247. 



Huguenots, coiiversion of, 180-182 
restrictions on merchants, 291. 

Hunt, Prof. Sterry, on earth-slidea, 
127 note. 



I. 



Iberville, Le Moyne d', 261. 

Ignorance of Canadians, 365, 366. 

Indian converts sent against New Eng' 
land, 318. 

Indian women, reproductive qualities 
of, 228 note. 

Indians, education of, 163 ; as an ele- 
ment of population, 228 note. 

Inns, pecuUar regulations touching, 
382, 383. 

Intendant, the royal, rank and duties 
of, 264-266 ; his secret reports, 266, 
274 ; nominally ruling power in col- 
ony, 275; his troubles, 275, 276; 
ordinances of, 277. 

Irreverence to God, pnmshment of, 
282. 

Isle aux Oies, scene of attack by Mo- 
hawks, 15. 



J. 

Jansenists, the doctrines of, 88 ; a raid 
on, 91-93. 

Jesmts, the, programme of, 96 ; prin- 
ciples of, 166 ; desired by Indians, 
205 ; their self-devotion. 318 ; influ- 
ence over Indians, 319 ; their con- 
nection with trade. 328-330 note; 
watched by order of the king, 332 ; 
long the only confessors in the col- 
ony, 352. 

"Jesuits in North America," referred 
to, 9. 

Joliet, Louis, established fishing-sta- 
tion, 293. 

JouaneauX, his misfortunes and his 
gratitude, 52, 53. 

Juchereau, Mother, extracts from writ- 
ings of, 179, 212, 381. 

Judge, oifice of, in Canadt, 270, 271. 

Jumeau, a nun, humility of, 52. 

Jurisdiction, the, of several tribunals 
268, 269 ; of intendant, 271. 

Justice, administration of, 271. 

K. 

Kalm, a Swedish botanist, his sketch 
of Canadian traits and man ners, 389- 
392. 

Knighthood, a Canadian order of, 37& 



INDEX. 



Ub 



L. 

kJi Barre, cited, 353 note; complains 
of lawlessness, 373, 374, 377. 

r^a Durantaye, a French officer, 261. 

Lafitau, his book on Iroquois cited, 30, 
31, note. 

La Fontaine, Sir L. H., cited, 247 
note. 

La Fredi^re, Major, his licentiousness 
and tyranny, 369, 370. 

La Hontan, sketch of mothers of Can- 
ada, 220, 221 ; cited, 270, 284, 291, 
348 ; estimate of Canadians, 388. 

La Jeune, Father, invited to choose a 
bishop for Canada, 87. 

Lalemant, Father Jei'ome, reference to, 
113, 120, 122 ; extracts from writings 
of, 124 125, 152, 154; cited, 322, 328 
note. 

Lamoignon, president of parliament, 
120. 

La Motte-Cadillac, a yentilhomme rover, 
261 ; cited, 334 note, 349, 350 ; let- 
ter of, 436, 437. 

LaMouche, nephew of Annahotaha, 79. 

Langlois, Noel, a carpenter, becomes 
gentleman, 256. 

La Potherie cited, 387. 

La Salle, 261 ; cited, 329, 351. 

La Tesserie appointed member of 
coimcil by M^zy, 154. 

La Tour, Abbe, errors of, 155 note ; 
testimony as to quarrel of Laval and 
M^zy, 158 note; cited, 217 note, 
298 ; on fashions, 381. 

Lauson, governor of Canada, decides 
to establish a French colony at 
Onondaga, 20 ; his inefficiency, 23 , 
his manner of living, 381. 

Laval-Montmorency, Francois Xavier 
de, Abb6 de Montigny,' sketch of, 
87, 88 ; his training, 94, 95 ; hostile to 
Sulpitians, 97; appointed grand 
vicar apostolic, 97 ; his position and 
character, 103, 106 ; returns to France, 
135 ; effects changes in government 
of Canada, 135 ; returns to Canada 
with enlarged powers, 136 ; his policy, 
137 ; sources of liis strength, 155 ; 
letter to cardinals, 159 ; first bishop 
of Quebec, 160 ; founds a seminary, 
160 ; tixation of cur^s, 161 ; how he 
raised funds, 1G2, 163 ; his character 
and work, 164-168 ; resigns, and is 
detained in France, 338 ; correspond- 
ence with Argenson, 407; with 
M^zy, 414. 

Lavignfej exploit of, 59. 

Le Ber, merchant of Montreal^ 52; 
made a gentlemea for 6000 hvres, 
256. 



Le Ber, Jeanne, story of, 356-359 ; 
saves the country from English inva- 
sion, 359. 

Le Clerc cited, 217. 

Le Maltre, a priest, 41; his murder 
and his miraculous handkerchief, 
55, 56. 

Le Mercier, Father, extracts from letter 
of, 5; cited, 11, 21; valuable fact 
about rattlesnakes, 26 ; cited, 27, 
29. 

Le Moyne, Charles. 73; return from 
captivity, 184; ske+ch of, 261-263 
and note. 

Le Moyne, Father Simon, envoy to 
Onondaga, 11-14; incites Iroquois 
to make war on Fries, 13 14 ; sent 
on mission to Mohawks. 15. 

Leroles, cousin of Mavqms de Fracy, 
captured by Indians, 191. 

Lesdigui6res, Duchesse de, Charle- 
voix's letter to, 392. 

Lods et ventes, mutation fines, 250. 

Lormeau, an ensign, assaulted by 
Carion, 371, 372. 

Louis, Father, prior of Jacobin convent 
at Caen, 146. 

Louis XI v.. King of France, his acces • 
sion, 169 ; his position and charactei" 
170-172 ; his interest in Canada, 218 ; 
faults of his rule, 284 ; how he gov- 
erned, 285, 286 ; not a prohibitionist, 
327 ; his distrust of Laval, 334 ; his 
respect for ecclesiastical powers, 331 ; 
his liberality to Canadian church,336, 
337 ; effects of his intervention in 
government of Canada, 368, 3G9 ; 
memoire of, to MM. Frontenac and 
Champigny, 436. 

Louvigni, Berniferes de, foimder of 
Hermitage, 88 ; his belief, 90. 

Luci^re, La Motte de la, commandant at 
Fort St. Anne, 202. 



M. 

Mac4, a nun of sisterhood of St. Joseph, 
46. 

Madry, alderman of Quebec, 153. 

Maillet, treasurer of Sisterhood of St. 
Joseph, 42. 

Maintenon, Madame de, how she ruled 
the king, 286, 287. 

Maisonneuve, Paul Chomedey de, gov- 
ernor of Montreal, 44, 50 ; his procla- 
mation, 60, 61 ; removed by M6zy 
147. 

Manners of mission period, 381 
Kalm's account of, 389-392 

Manufactures, improvemert of, 298. 

Marie de 1' Incarnation, letters of, ISn 



446 



INDM-. 



note, 181, 182, 183, 194, 197. 200. 217 
note, 219, 222, 242. 

Marvels, visions, and voices, 124, 125. 

Mazarin, vacillation of, 84, 85. 

Maz6, P^ronne de, son of Dumesnil, 
133, 134 ; appointed member of coun- 
cil by Mezy, 154. 

Meetings, publicj restricted, 280; of 
rasrchants forbidden, 301. 

Mental improvement of Canadians, 365. 

Mesnu, Peuvret de, secretary of 
Laval's councilj 136. 

Meules, his meraoire cited, 381 note. 

M^zy, Sieur de, appointed governor of 
Canada at Laval's request, 135; 
arrival of, 136 ; sketch of, 145 ; his 
piety and humility, 147 ; change in 
his character, 148 ; breach with 
Laval, 149; threatened with wrath 
of the church, 150 ; appeals to the 
Jesuits, 150-152 ; removes attorney- 
general, 152; is recalled, 155; his 
death, 156, 157 ; his will, 157 ; his 
charges against Laval, 158 note ; 
con-espondence with Laval, 413, 414 ; 
letter to Jesuits, 415, 416. 

Michillimackinac, centre of beaver 
trade, 319. 

Mills on the frontier, 235. 

Mission-days, the end of, 331. 

Missions, 316 ; hardships and horrors 
of, 317, 343 ; Father Carheil's report 
on, 319, 320 ; effect of, on people and 
country, 368. 

Mituvemeg, an Algonquin chief, 75. 

Mohawks, persistent hostility of, 183 ; 
punishment of, 195, 196. 

Moutmagny, governor of Canada, 107. 

Montreal, state of an arrival of Mon- 
trealists, 49, 50 ; Argenson's opinion 
of, 117, 118; remnant of founders 
of, 84 ; transfen-ed to Sulpitians, 84 ; 
description of, 240, 241. 

Montrealists, disingenuousness of, 49 
and note ; sufferings of, 51. 

Morals of families watched by priests, 
348; La Hontan's testimony, 349; 
military influence on, 369. 

Morel, Father, his parochial charge, 341. 

Morin, a nun of Sisterhood of St. 
Joseph, her account of Indian at^ 
tack, 53, 54 ; letter of, 369. 

Municipal regulations in Quebec, 383. 



New England, colonists of, their char- 
acter, 397. 

New France, Company of, its reanima^ 
tion, 132 ; forced to give up its claims 
ou Canada, 135. 



Nicolls, English governor o^ New 

York, proposes conquest of Cana 

da, 199. 
Nobility, French, peculiarities of, 254. 
Noblesse, a Canadian, king attempts 

to form, 227 ; all Canada infatuated 

with, 256. 
Noel, Jean, renders homage to British 

governor^ 247. 
Noel, Phihppe, father of Jean Noil 

247. 
Nuns, devotion of, 356. 

o. 

Officers, French, missionaries' com* 

plaints of, 320. 
Oneidas, persistent hostility of, 183. 
Ornamental arts, 298. 
Oudiette, a monopolist in transport of 

beaver-skins. 306. 



P. 

Perrot, Nicolas, author of Moeurs det 
Sauvages, 192 note. 

Piiart, letter of, against Queylus, 86, 87. 

Pilots, lack of, 296. 

Poncet, a Jesuit, capture of, 3 ; narra- 
tive of adventures, 3-7 ; release, 8. 

Population, why it did not increase, 
229 and note ; statistics of, 237 note. 

Poverty of colony, causes of it, 380. 

Pretextata, terrible punishment of, 346 

Priests, rigid piety of, 344. 

Q. 

Quebec, alarm at, 70; description of, 
238, 239. 

Queylus,Sulpitian candidate for bishop, 
84 ; appointed vicar-general of Can- 
ada, 85 ; experience at Quebec, 85 
note ; his policy, 86 ; Vigor's notice 
of, 87 note ; opposes Laval, 97 ; sent 
back to France, 98 ; returns to Que- 
bec; the quarrel renewed, and 
Queylus again shipped to France ; a 
reconciliation effected, and returns 
to Canada as a missionary, 99-102. 



R. 



Ragaeneau, a Jesuit priest, spared In 
a massacre, 33 ; reierred to, 113 ; 
tells a strange story of a vision, 125 
note ; his inquisitiveness, 350. 



INDEX. 



447 



Raisin, a aun of Sisterhood of St 

Joseph, 47. 
Rank, grades of social, 387. _ 
Raudot, intendant, his opinion of Ca- 
nadian children, 376 note. 
Recollets, the, 335; their collisions 

with Jesuits, 353 ; their complaints, 

353. 
Relations, of the Jesuits, excited spirit 

of adventiu'e in France, 177, 183. 
Religion, revival of, at Quebec, 128; 

in the wilderness, picture of, 342. 
Rimy, Daniel de, Sieur de Courcelle, 

appointed governor of Canada, 176 ; 

rash expedition and failure, 186- 

190 ; its effect on Indians, 190. 
Repentiguy, mayor of Quebec, 153. 
Richelieu, first ' planted feudalism in 

Canada, 244. 
Riverin, established fisheries, 293 ; 

jnint meinoire of, 423. 
Borne, Church of, strongest influence 

in shaping colony, 400. 



s. 

Saint Andr^, an emigrant ship, 41. 
Saint Anne, du Petit Cap, shrine of, 

how it was built, 363 ; favorite saint 

of Canada, 363, 364 note. 
Saint Augustin, Mother Catherine de, 

her vision, 125. 
Saintr-Castin, a gentilkomme rover, 

261. 
Saint F^licit^, relics of, received at 

Quebec, 180. 
Saint Flavian, relics of, received at 

Quebec, 180. 
Saint Lusson, took possession, for king, 

of upper lakes, 213. 
Saint Mary of Gannentaa, mission of, 

29 and note. 
Saint Ours, destitution of, 258. 
Saint P^re, Jean, subject of miracle, 

55. 
Saint Simon, memoires of, cited, 286, 

287. 
Saint-Vallier, Laval's successor in 

bishopric ; how he undid Laval's 

work, 339 ; his character, 339 ; dis- 
cordant opinions of, as to condition 

of people, 377, 378. 
Saints in Canada, 355. 
Salaries of public ofiicers, 284, 285 and 

note. 
Saliferes, colonel of regiment Carignan- 

Saliferes, 181. 
Schools, true purpose of, 360 ; Laval's, 

361 ; successful only in making good 

Catholics, 364. 



Seigniorial tenure, its discussion, 353 

note. 
Seigniors, military, how they lived, 

233-235; civil status of, 245, 246, 

248 ; powers of, 252. 
Seminary, foun^.vi by Laval, IGO ; its 

wealth, 163, 154. 
Servants, status of, 283. 
Settlers, their hardships, 241, 242. 
Ship-building, beginning of, 298. 
Slavery in Canada, beginning of, 388 ; 

Indians enslaved, 388. 
Social pleasures, regulation of, 344r 

347, and 347 note. 
Society at Quebec, features and quality 

of, 386, 387. 
Sulpitians, a religious o^ganizatioB, 



T. 

Tadoussac, a trading station at montA 
of Saguenay, 237; sale of brandy 
permitted at, 326. 

Talon, Jean Baptiste, royal intendant 
of Canada, 176 ; his personal appear- 
ance and c[ualifications, 207 ; essays 
to galvanize the colony, 209 ; in- 
augurates commercial and manu- 
facturing enterprises, 210-213; his 
probity, 214 ; letters to Colbert, 418 ; 
memoire on state of Canada, 432, 
433. 

Taxation in Canada, 301, 302. 

Temperance meeting, first on the con- 
tinent, 322. 

Temperance question, the, 121 ; free 
sale of brandy, 123, 322. 

Tilly, Le Gardeur de, member of La- 
val's council, 136 ; reappointed, 
154. 

Torture of prisoners permitted by 
Jesuits, 69-71 note. 

Torture permitted by French law, and 
practised in Canada, 283, 284. 

Touches, P^ronnedes, son of Dumes- 
nil, killed by violence, 134. 

Tourmente, Cape, view from, 362, 
363. 

Tracy, Marquis de, lieutenant-general 
of Canada, arrival of, 177, 178 ; his 
vigorous policy, 181 ; expedition 
against Mohawks, 192; most suc- 
cessful of all expeditions against 
Indians, 206. 

Trade, right of nobles to engage in, 
260 ; restriction of, 289, 290 ; great- 
est evil of, 292; statistics of, 292 
note; Denonville's letter on, 422, 
423. 



448 



INDEX. 



V. 

Varennes, Ren^ Gaultier de, a French 
officer who married a bride of twelve 
years, 227 note. 

Vasseur, an engineer, extract from let- 
ter of, 384, 385. 

Verendrye, Varennes de la, discoverer 
of Rocky Mountains, birth of, 227 
note. 

Vi^ial, Guillattme de, a priest, 41; 
killed and eaten by Iroquois, 57. 

Villages, Talon's, 236. 

Villeray, Rouer de, member of Laval's 
council, 136 ; Argenson's opinion of 
him, 138; banished by M^zy, 155. 



Vitry, Sieur de, aided m estabiisbiiur 
fishery, 293, 294. 

w. 

Witches, scarcity of, 355; a Haguenot 
specimen, 355. 

Wives for settlers, supplied by the 
king, 219; their quality, 219; for 
officers, " select young ladies," 219 ; 
a glut of demoiselles, 220 ; character 
of, 220; matrimonial regulations, 
222, 223; "mixed goods," 223; 
matrimonial market at Quebec, 223. 

Women, Iroquois, political rights o' 
30 note. 



